Smartphone sensation Xiaomi is wowing the world with impressive sales figures for the first half of the year that show it is well on the way to meeting its ambitious 2014 target, as it seeks to become the China version of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). But hidden in the latest figures are the less encouraging news that Xiaomi’s revenue grew far more slowly than unit sales of its flagship smartphones, meaning its prices fell sharply and probably so did its margins. That’s not too surprising considering the stiff competition in China’s smartphone market, where Xiaomi has to compete with well-funded homegrown rivals like Lenovo (HKEx: 992), Huawei, ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) and Coolpad. Read Full Post…
After several false alarms, China’s slow-moving telecoms regulator has finally made its highly anticipated award of 4G licenses to the nation’s 2 smaller telcos, providing a much needed boost as they lose share to dominant telco China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL). Now China Telcom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) and China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHA) will have to quickly build networks based on 4G FDD-LTE technology, the standard used in most of the rest of the world that will now finally make its debut in China. Read Full Post…
A new complaint in Europe by smartphone maker ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) is shining a spotlight on Chinese gadget makers’ dependence on foreign technology, which often ends up making them hostages to big western patent holders. I personally find ZTE’s new complaint against Vringo just slightly amusing, since ZTE and crosstown rival Huawei are consistently among the world’s largest global patent recipients these last few years — a fact both companies love to trumpet. Apparently many of those patents aren’t worth too much, which leaves companies like ZTE still quite reliant on foreign technology. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 19. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Vacation Rental Site Tujia Completes $100 Mln Series C Funding (English article)
ZTE (HKEx: 763) Files Antitrust Complaint With European Commission Against Vringo (Businesswire)
Guangzhou Daily Withdraws Lawsuit Against Today’s Headlines App (Chinese article)
Huawei Expands In Russian Tech Services After Putin’s China Deal (English article)
Billionaire JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) Founder Lines Up Next Challenge: Beating Alibaba (English article)
The embattled telecoms pair of Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) are embarking on major hiring sprees outside their home market, seeking to not only import foreign expertise but also foreign faces as they try to look more global and less Chinese. That’s my major takeaway on reading separate reports that ZTE is launching a drive to recruit workers from 2 struggling western cellphone giants, while Huawei is also hiring thousands of new employees in Europe to cater to its largest market outside of China.
A couple of new headlines are highlighting Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) lackluster performance in China in the first part of this year, as the smartphone pioneer falls behind homegrown sensation Xiaomi and takes much needed steps to improve its China App Store. In one of the reports, media are saying that Apple trailed Xiaomi for the first time in the first quarter of this year. Meantime, another report is saying that Apple is embarking on a major drive to recruit more China developers to make local apps for its iPhone, since a strong selection of good apps is key to maintaining its popularity in the market. Read Full Post…
Chinese workers who quit their jobs at IBM (NYSE: IBM) this spring rather than take new positions at Lenovo (HKEx: 992) under an M&A deal may be regretting their decision, with word that the deal may derail due to US national security concerns. Of course I’m being just a tad facetious with my comment about the former IBM workers, but I’m quite serious about the doubts that are suddenly swirling around the deal announced early this year for IBM to sell its low-end server business to Lenovo. The latest reports are a bit more neutral, though I would now give the deal just a 50 percent chance of getting clearance from the US national security regulator. Read Full Post…
The latest reports that Beijing is pressuring Chinese banks to stop using high-end servers from computing giant IBM (NYSE: IBM) don’t come as a huge surprise, amid escalating tensions between China and the US over cyber spying. This particular development is just the latest in a series of similar moves that dates back to last year, when Beijing began quietly pressuring many big state-run firms to stop using US tech products following revelations from the Edward Snowden cyber-spying scandal. The ironic element of Beijing’s anti-foreign tech campaign is that it could actually make the nation’s technology networks and systems even more vulnerable to spying, since most domestic products are far less sophisticated than their foreign counterparts. Read Full Post…
I was disappointed but certainly not surprised to read that homegrown telecoms equipment giants Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) won the big majority of a major new batch of contracts from dominant wireless carrier China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) to build its 4G network. Regular readers will know that I’m a strong advocate of free trade, and believe that Chinese and western equipment sellers should receive 4G contracts in any country roughly in line with their global market share. But in China such major purchasing often has a political element, especially when the buyer is a state-run company, which is clearly the case here. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on May 24-26. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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ZTE, Huawei Win Bulk Of China Mobile’s 2nd Batch Of 4G Contracts -Sources (English article)
Video Sharing Site Xunlei Files To Raise Up To $100 Mln In New York IPO (Chinese article)
SNS Shopping Site Mogujie Lands $100 Mln In New Funding – Source (English article)
India Hits US, China With Solar Imports Anti-Dumping Duties (English article)
Chinese Carmaker BYD (HKEx: 1211) Offering $400m In New Shares (English article)
Two news threads that started with relatively isolated moves are showing signs of becoming trends, with word that Beijing is taking new actions against overseas tech and drug firms. In the former case, media are reporting that China is preparing to roll out new security checks for all foreign IT products, in a move that looks aimed at the computing and telecoms sectors. The latter case has media reporting that investigators have visited the offices of Swiss drug giant Roche (Switzerland: ROG), which could auger more formal moves against the company for corrupt business practices. Read Full Post…
