Bottom line: China’s opening of the electronic payment services market could see PayPal and other foreign providers finally receive long-awaited licenses to operate in the market by year-end.
PayPal may finally get China green light
Foreign financial companies came a step closer to realizing a long-awaited goal last week, when Beijing announced it would allow them to open fully-owned electronic transaction processing ventures for e-commerce services in the year-old Shanghai free trade zone. The move comes after years of lobbying by foreign companies like PayPal, MasterCard (NYSE: MA) and Visa (NYSE: V), which have watched enviously at the rapid growth of a domestic financial system that China committed to open when it joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Beijing should be commended for its recent program to open up telecoms services to private investment, and should consider accelerating the program and allowing in foreign participation.
Beijing injects competition into telecoms services
A campaign to bring private money into China’s telecoms sector was in the headlines twice over the last 2 weeks, reflecting a broader Beijing campaign to inject new life into traditional sectors like banking and energy that are now dominated by large and often slow-moving state-run firms.
One headline came late last week, when media reported that 20 million new phone numbers would be injected into a year-old program allowing private companies to sell mobile service. That followed even bigger news a week earlier, when media said the telecoms regulator hoped to allow private investors to build domestic telecoms network infrastructure for the first time. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 30. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Bottom line: New signals indicate Beijing plans to move aggressively to prevent solar panel makers from adding unneeded new capacity to help their local governments meet economic growth targets.
MIIT limits solar panel expansion
A new low-key announcement from Beijing is hinting at a quiet struggle taking place behind the scenes in China’s promising but embattled solar panel sector, with the regulator saying it will stop the building of most new manufacturing capacity. On one side of this struggle are local government officials, who may be encouraging solar panel makers in their areas to add capacity that will benefit their local economy but is the last thing the industry needs. On the other side of the battle is Beijing, which is trying to show the world it doesn’t unfairly subsidize its solar panel sector as it also tries to rationalize a bloated domestic industry that is stifling global development. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Mobile data usage will grow by triple-digit amounts this year as telcos boost 4G promotions, while box office growth will start to slow and the ongoing decline in traditional SMS text messaging will accelerate.
Hongbao chatter fuels mobile data surge
The usual rush of Lunar New Year-related data is coming in, painting a mixed picture for traditional and new media. The clear winner in the mix is new media, whose surging popularity helped to fuel a 70 percent jump in mobile data traffic over the holiday period. Traditional movies also performed well, with China’s box office rising 36 percent during the period. It will also come as no surprise that the big loser over the holiday was traditional SMS text messages, whose volume plunged by 25 percent. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Rumors of a China Telecom-Unicom merger are probably false since they would leave just 2 big players in the market, though the talk could reflect the regulator’s frustration at the continued dominance of China Mobile.
Regulator hangs up on telecoms merger rumors
Everyone else is buzzing today about rumors that the smaller of China’s 3 telcos would merge, so I feel obliged to add my 2 cents to the discussion, even though the deal has been denied by one of the companies and the industry regulator. Of course this kind of denial isn’t very meaningful in China, where companies will vehemently deny a rumor one day and then the next day announce a deal that showed the talk was indeed correct. But in this case, a merger of China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) and China Unicom (HKEx: 763; NYSE: CHU) really doesn’t make much sense for a number of reasons. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: New data from the telecoms regulator shows that China Telecom outperformed its rivals last year, and could be set for strong growth as it consolidates around its high-speed wireless data business.
China Telecom outpaces rivals in 2014
Just a month after I expressed disappointment at China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) for its lack of focus in the era of data services, newly released year-end financial data are making me re-think my view. That data appears to portray China Telecom as a company that has made the difficult transformation from a traditional fixed-line operator to a more wireless-focused carrier, meaning it could finally be poised for some strong growth this year as it rolls out a new state-of-the-art 4G network. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: China’s smartphone market is likely to contract another 10 percent this year, forcing some newer domestic manufacturers out of business, while Huawei’s bid to go upscale in the space is likely to face difficulty.
Huawei posts strong growth on smartphones
New data on China’s booming smartphone sector show the industry crossed a tipping point in 2014, with sales starting to sag after several years of explosive growth. That earlier growth was fueled by companies like Huawei, one of the nation’s largest manufacturers, which has just given some preliminary financial data for 2014. Huawei cited a big jump in smartphone sales as a major factor behind its 20 percent jump in total revenue last year, as strong gains for its consumer products division offset slower growth in its older telecoms networking equipment unit. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 24. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Citic Bank Buys BBVA’s Stake In Financial Unit For $1.05 Bln (English article)
Billionaire Wang’s Dalian Wanda (HKEx: 3699) Property Firm Falls in HK Debut (English article)
MIIT Says To Issue 4G FDD-LTE Licenses Next Year (Chinese article)
NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ) Board Authorizes Up to $80 Mln Share Buyback (PRNewswire)
Enlight Media (Shenzhen: 300251), Qihoo (NYSE: QIHU) Form Online Video JV (English article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 19. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) In Global Video Cloud Service (Chinese article)
Bottom line: China’s plan to allow private competition in the wire-line broadband sector will move forward slowly, but should provide needed competition for Unicom and China Telecom within the next 3-5 years.
China opens broadband to private investment
China’s drive to open up its telecoms services sector to more competition could soon gain some new momentum, with word that the telecoms regulator is crafting a plan that would let private companies offer wire-line broadband services. This particular move looks like an extension of a campaign that launched earlier this year, allowing private companies to offer traditional mobile service through the creation of virtual network operators (VNOs).
This new campaign would also come as China works to break the current monopoly in the wire-line broadband sector held by China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) and China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; NYSE: CHA), which previously were probed for monopolistic practices. It would also come as Beijing assembles a new national wire-line broadband company through consolidation of the nation’s dozens of cable TV operators. Read Full Post…
