Tag Archives: Taobao

News Digest: April 7-9, 2012 报摘： 2012年4月7-9日

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The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 7-9. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.

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◙ TPG Capital, China’s Hony Said to Plan Bid for Japanese Chipmaker Elpida (English article)

◙ China Lodging Group (Nasdaq: HTHT) Announces Preliminary Q1 Hotel Operating Results (PRNewswire)

◙ Taobao Japan Shopping Channel Shuts Down Due to Low Usage (Chinese article)

◙ Commerce Ministry: Australia’s Ban on Huawei Bid Unfair (Chinese article)

◙ CNPC (HKEx: 857) in Talks With Foreign Firms About Shale Oil Exploration (English article)

Alibaba vs eBay: Chapter 2 Begins 阿里巴巴和eBay狭路又相逢

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After engaging in a bloody war in the online auctions space 7 years ago that ironically resulted in no winners, leading e-commerce firms Alibaba and eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) may be gearing up for a second round in this entertaining conflict in the lucrative electronic payments area. That’s the way it looks following the latest disclosure that PayPal, eBay’s highly successful e-payments service, intends to enter China’s fast-growing domestic electronic payments market. (English article) In fact, PayPal already processes electronic payments between China and other countries, and indicated as early as last fall that it was seriously considering a bid to enter China’s domestic market that would allow it to process payments between Chinese buyers and sellers. That market is currently off limits to foreign-invested companies, but the country is now accepting applications and many it expect it to issue its first licenses to the group later this year, following the licensing of domestic players last year. A top PayPal executive has said he is cautiously optimistic his company will be one of the first foreign recipients of a new license. Anyone who follows the market knows that PayPal’s entry to the market would put it in direct competition with Alibaba’s AliPay, which has grown rapidly to become one of its most valuable assets and is now a leading player in the space. China Internet historians will recall that another Alibaba service, its Taobao online auctions marketplace, fought a fierce battle with eBay’s EachNet starting around 2005. That battle saw Taobao institute a strict no-fee policy that helped it rapidly steal share from EachNet, which at the time was the country’s dominant provider of online auction services, also known as consumer-to-consumer or C2C. EBay eventually conceded the battle, leaving the market to Alibaba which heavily trumpeted its victory in this battle. Ironically, Alibaba would go on to discover it had won the battle only to lose the war, as it could never find a way to earn very much money from its online auction business, which is now one of its smaller assets. After that battle, eBay and Alibaba actually had a brief friendly period where they joined forces, only to see eBay break off that relationship last year. (previous post) Unlike online auctions, which no longer generate much excitement among investors, e-payment services seem to be a safer long-term bet, as they can be used by anyone doing business on the Internet and generate steady revenue for providers in the form of transaction payments. AliPay clearly has an advantage in this market due to its longer operating history. But that said, PayPal has been active for years in the cross-border market between China and the rest of the world, and has the resources to wage a serious new war if it gets a license. Look for this newest battle to be quite colorful and interesting, with eBay quite possibly winning the second round of this ongoing rivalry with Alibaba.

Bottom line: A new war could shape up between Alibaba and eBay later this year in electronic payments, putting pressure on Alilbaba’s lucrative AliPay service.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Alibaba, eBay Lovefest Over as eBay Rethinks China 阿里巴巴和eBay的蜜月期结束

◙ E-Payments: Lots of Noise But Little Space

◙ Alibaba in Alipay Deal: Jack Ma Wins Again 支付宝股权纷争尘埃落定 马云公关赚钱两不误

Alibaba: Let’s Get This Show Finished 阿里巴巴和雅虎赶紧“离婚”吧

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Let’s get this story finished and move on! I don’t mean to sound impatient, but that’s my first reaction on reading the latest reports about Alibaba’s endless saga in its quest to buy out the 40 percent stake in itself held by Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO). I realize this deal involves a big amount of money, possibly as much as $10 billion, but that said, it’s also quite straightforward since the 2 companies have essentially no shared assets and thus literally all that’s needed is agreement on a price and then for Alibaba to find the financing. According to the latest reports, Alibaba and Yahoo have finally entered into serious discussions, following Yahoo’s naming of a new CEO last month, and the 2 sides fully expect to reach an agreement by mid March. (Chinese article) I personally can’t wait until they  announce a deal, as it will finally mark the end of a major corporate marriage that started with lots of promise, only to see things sour and end with a divorce that has taken way too long to reach. I’m probably being a little unfair here, as a final deal was unlikely to happen until Yahoo finally named a new CEO to replace Carol Bartz, who was a major source of friction between the 2 companies and whose firing last year finally set in process that will finally see Alibaba get its long-sought divorce. From Alibaba’s perspective, the sooner the settlement comes the better, as the divorce has become way too big a distraction as the company hopped from one crisis to the next at many of its core businesses last year, including its oldest B2B Alibaba.com (HKEx: 1688) site and its promising Taobao Mall, both of which were rocked by scandals that they are still recovering from. For its part, Yahoo also needs to put this story behind it and get to work trying to resuscitate its struggling search business, once a pioneer in the sector but which later lost its way as global giant Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) stole most of its business. A final settlement will not only end the hostilities, but will also leave Yahoo with a nice pile of cash to use to rebuild its business. It will also leave Alibaba with a pile of shares it can sell to more passive investors who are interested in its strong growth potential without wanting a strong say in its bigger management decisions. All that said, my final word to both sides, at least for now is: Let’s really try to end this saga by the mid-March deadline. Believe me, you won’t be the only ones celebrating!

Bottom line: The world will celebrate with Alibaba and Yahoo when they finally finish their divorce, ending an unhappy chapter for both companies that dragged on way too long.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Yahoo, Alibaba Dance Nears Finale　　雅虎应与阿里巴巴撇清干系

◙ New Loan Brings Alibaba Value Into Focus

◙ Alibaba Scrambles to Prove High Valuation 阿里巴巴高估值或将作茧自缚

Sina Tests Weibo Demand With Paid Offering 新浪试水微博增值收费服务

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A half year after spinning off its Weibo unit with an aim to earning profits from the wildly popular microblogging service, Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) is taking the first step to generating significant new revenues from the business by rolling out a new premium paid service. The strategy is certainly necessary if Sina ever wants to earn a profit from Weibo, and I even like the fact that it’s charging a very modest fee for the service, at least initially, which should help attract customers. But I’m still quite skeptical that the strategy will actually work, as it’s always hard to get people to pay for something they’ve grown accustomed to getting for free. Let’s backtrack a moment and look at the details of this latest development, which has Sina rolling out a service that will allow Weibo users to get the new premium service for the modest fee of 5 yuan a month or 50 yuan a year, translating to less than $1 per month. (English article) The new service will allow users to get SMS notifications for some of their incoming posts — an offering that doesn’t sound that interesting since many users already access Weibo over their mobile phones. In theory the new service could be a major revenue generator, since the company could generate more than 1 billion yuan in annual revenue if even just 10 percent of Weibo’s 250 million users signed up for the service. But as I said already, the bigger issue will be getting people to pay for a service that they’re used to getting for free. E-commerce leader Alibaba Group has found out that such a switch can indeed be difficult, as reflected by the lackluster performance of its Taobao online auctions service. That service made headlines 7 years ago when it ultimately drove global leader eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) out of the China market by offering its services for free; but since then, Alibaba has had a difficult time making significant profits from the business, due in large part to the fact that users don’t want to pay for something they’ve always received for free. I suspect that Weibo will learn a similar lesson with this latest premium offering, and would advise Sina to look at other options in its drive to make the platform profitable, including developing entirely new services that can leverage Weibo’s large user base.

Bottom line: Weibo’s new premium service is likely to fail due to lack of interest from users who are accustomed to getting the service for free.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Sina’s Weibo Suffers New Setback With Lawsuit 吉林市驻京办可能起诉新浪微博

◙ Microblog Clampdown: Only Chapter 1? 实名制向网络行业吹去冷风

◙ Watch Out Weibo, Weixin Is Growing 新浪微博要小心腾讯微信要崛起

Post Office: A Good E-Commerce Play 中国邮政分拆速递物流可谓电子商务”妙招

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I’ve written lots on China’s e-commerce boom and the huge opportunity it provides, but the less visible courier business is a sideline that is quietly zooming to riches as well on the nation’s growing fondness for buying things online. I haven’t written about this lower-profile part of the e-commerce story before now, mostly because the vast majority of courier firms are small local outfits, often operating with a few bikes, some mopeds and perhaps a van or 2. But now local media are saying that China’s postal service wants to spin off its courier and logistics unit into a separate business, which would then be publicly listed. (Chinese article) Of course this kind of plan must still receive many government approvals and would probably require some major internal restructuring, meaning any such spin-off is still likely a year or more away and an IPO would be even further off. But if and when it happens, such an offering would provide an attractive opportunity for investors looking to cash in on China’s e-commerce craze that has seen nearly all major retailers open online shops and has given rise to major online giants like 360Buy, Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), Alibaba’s Taobao Mall and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) invested Yihaodian. Then of course there’s global giant Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), which recently launched a massive new warehouse near Shanghai that will no doubt need thousands of couriers to make sure items get from the facility to their final buyers. Such a postal spin off would also free the new company of many of the burdensome regulations and bureaucracy it now faces, potentially laying the foundation for an eventual Chinese version of a global shipping and logistics company to rival names like UPS (NYSE: UPS) and FedEx. All that said, competition in the courier space is also becoming rampant, similar to the overheated competition among e-commerce companies themselves. Still, this new company, if it takes shape, will have the obvious advantage of huge scale and strong government ties, meaning it could be perfectly placed to cash in on the e-commerce craze for the next 5-10 years.

Bottom line: The China post office’s plan to spin off its courier and logistics service into a separate company for an IPO looks like a great way for investors to cash in on the e-commerce craze.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Price Wars Beat Up Online Retailers 网上零售商引爆价格战

◙ New Regulatory, Competitive Waves Hit E-Commerce 监管和竞争冲击电子商务领域

◙ Amazon Name Shift Signals China Ramp-Up 亚马逊改名背后折射中国野心

2011: A Breakthrough Year in Copyright Protection 2011年：中国版权保护取得突破的一年

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It seems quite appropriate that 2011 is ending with news that Internet search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), which for years symbolized rampant disregard for copyrights on China’s unruly Internet, has been removed from a US list of “notorious markets” for piracy, capping a year that saw great progress in intellectual property protection. (English article) Baidu’s achievement after it signed a series of landmark licensing agreements with major music labels like Universal, Warner (NYSE: WMG) and Sony Music (Tokyo: 6758) in July as it launched a service selling legal copies of their music. (previous post) Baidu’s removal from the list was just the latest major advance in copyright protection, as China’s crowded field of online music and video sites all took new steps to secure exclusive content to set themselves apart from rivals in the competitive sector. The nation’s top 3 video sharing sites, Youku (NYSE: YOKU), Sohu video (Nasdaq: SOHU) and Tudou (NYSE: TUDO) all signed their first big licensing deals during the year to offer TV shows and films from the likes of Warner Brothers (NYSE: TWX) and Disney (NYSE: DIS). (previous post) Some domestic names like Huayi Brothers (Shenzhen: 300027) signed similar deals, as early signs emerged of a coming renaissance for domestic content makers, an increasing number of which are looking to domestic IPOs to fuel their growth. (previous post) In another interesting development just last week, Youku and Tudou filed a series of copyright infringement lawsuits against each other, showing that these companies themselves could emerge as a potent force to help police against future copyright violations. (previous post) Last but not least, many of the sites themselves are increasingly producing their own exclusive content, with Phoenix New Media (NYSE: FENG) and PPLive announcing such initiatives during the year, which should also help the programming industry’s development. (previous post) Of course, there is still much work to be done. Despite its launch of a legal music service, Baidu continues to operate its popular older music service where swapping of pirated songs is rampant. And while Baidu was removed from the “notorious” list, Alibaba’s Taobao, China’s e-commerce leader, remains on the list for the widespread sale of knock-off products on its site. Still, in all my years covering China tech and media, 2011 certainly looks like a year of major breakthroughs in copyright protection as Chinese firms finally wake up to the reality that piracy isn’t a very good long-term business model.

Bottom line: Baidu’s removal from a US piracy list reflects big progress in the anti-piracy battle in China in 2011, with the campaign likely to maintain momentum into 2012.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ After Years, Baidu Does the Right Thing 百度多年来的一个正确之举

◙ Video Makers On Cusp of Renaissance 视频制作商或迎来美好时代

◙ Youku’s New Formula: Sponsored Programs 优酷“新配方”：赞助项目

Alibaba Scrambles to Prove High Valuation 阿里巴巴高估值或将作茧自缚

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E-commerce leader Alibaba, scrambling to find financing to buy back a 40 percent stake in itself held by Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), is in a sudden scramble to tell the world why it’s worth $32 billion — a number it helped to float into the market back in September and one which, in my view, seems ridiculously high. In separate news bits from the last day or so, media are reporting the company’s Etao e-commerce search engine has launched a historical pricing search feature (English article), while its popular Taobao consumer-oriented sites have launched social networking functions. (English article) First Etao, which Alibaba hopes to build up as an e-commerce search specialist to one day take on industry titan Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). This historical price search function seems like a good idea, as it would make it easier for cost-conscious consumers to track previous prices for items they want to buy. The only problem is that historical prices could soon be the only thing that Etao can show, as several major online retailers, including 360Buy and Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), have blocked their items from being indexed in Etao search results. (previous post) Meantime, the social networking functions being built into Taobao seem like a direct attempt to take on existing SNS sites like Renren (NYSE: RENN) and Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo. While this strategy of building on its industry-leading C2C and B2C platforms to build up SNS sounds interesting, the two areas are relatively unrelated and few if any Chinese web firms have successfully executed similar strategies despite many efforts to leverage popular existing services to build up a new, unrelated ones. This flurry of initiatives seems designed, at least in part, to show the world why Alibaba thinks it may be worth $32 billion. Its only listed unit, Alibaba.com (HKEx: 1688) has a market cap of about $5 billion. That means that its other big assets, which mostly consist of a very successful Taobao Mall and more modestly successful Etao and its Alipay e-payment service, would have to be worth $27 billion collectively, which seems unlikely. Ironically, Alibaba’s high estimation of its own value could ultimately come back to hurt it, as Yahoo apparently seems to want to sell its 40 percent of Alibaba based on that overinflated value. The true amount will come out when a sale finally occurs, but I suspect the final valuation will be closer to $20 billion.

Bottom line: Alibaba is trying to convince the market it is worth $32 billion, but a sale of 40 percent of the company held by Yahoo will probably show a much lower valuation.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Alibaba Tests Waters for Yahoo Buyout – Again 阿里巴巴再试水竞购雅虎股权

◙ Alibaba’s Incredible Shrinking Profit Growth 阿里巴巴盈利呈加速放缓趋势

◙ Albaba Faces New Assaults From Merchants, 360Buy 阿里巴巴受到中小商户和京东商城的双重夹攻

 

Albaba Faces New Assaults From Merchants, 360Buy 阿里巴巴受到中小商户和京东商城的双重夹攻

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Embattled Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba is looking more and more like a fortress under attack these days, facing assaults on two fronts in the latest chapter of its ongoing spats with the rest of the online world. The first and more serious of those spats has seen smaller online merchants, upset over huge fee hikes at Taobao Mall, Alibaba’s main B2C site, launch an assault on Alibaba’s Alipay electronic payments site, according to domestic media reports. (English article; Chinese article) The reports are quite colorful, with enraged small- and medium-sized merchants, who have complained the fee hikes are designed to weed them out, withdrawing massive amounts of money from Alipay one day late last week, and then blocking access to the service completely. This mass movement comes after the same group of merchants wreaked havoc on Taobao Mall itself a couple of weeks ago by making mass bogus purchases from large merchants on the site, only to cancel their transactions hours later. (previous post) Beijing has reportedly stepped in to try to mediate the dispute and Alibaba itself has made some conciliatory gestures, but obviously the merchants aren’t happy with progress so far and the damage to Taobao Mall looks set to drag on for at least a couple of months, if not longer. In the second development, media are reporting that 360Buy, one of China’s largest e-commerce sites, is hinting it may soon block its pages from searches on Etao, Alibaba’s site that specializes in e-commerce related searches. (Chinese article) Such a break would be a major blow to Etao, and would follow 360Buy’s cut off of ties with Alipay back in August, reflecting a broader feud. (previous post) Many in the online world already blame Alibaba founder Jack Ma for the negative overseas sentiment towards China Internet stocks due to his high profile dispute with Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) earlier this year over ownership of Alipay. These latest disputes will hardly help his company’s damaged reputation, and could mark the latest chapter in a longer decline for the company.

Bottom line: Alibaba’s latest disputes with smaller merchants on its Taobao platform and e-commerce giant 360Buy mark the latest chapter in what could become a long-term decline for the firm.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Taobao Mall’s IPO March Collides With Merchant Uprising 淘宝商城IPO或因商户“起义”被推迟

◙ Alibaba Sharpens Focus in Yahoo Buy-Out, Taobao Mall 阿里巴巴回购雅虎所持股权有望

◙ Alibaba.com Blows Smoke With HiChina Spin-Off Plan 阿里巴巴网络分拆万网放烟幕弹

Taobao Mall Drums Up Hype in IPO Run-Up 淘宝商城开放或为IPO造势

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It’s only 3 months since Alibaba split its consumer-oriented Taobao Website into two units, and already it’s starting to hype the more promising of the  two, the B2C-focused Taobao Mall, in what’s no doubt the run-up to an IPO that could come as soon as next year. At the same time, Alibaba.com (HKEx: 1688) is continuing with its battle to win back credibility following a scandal earlier this year, in a clear divergence of strategy for these two sister companies that are both part of Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba Group. Let’s look at Taobao Mall first. The 3-month-old company has held what was probably its first stand-alone press conference, in which it boasted it expects its sales volume to double to 200 billion yuan next year, or about $31 billion, and where it announced a new strategy where it will open its site to other online retailers like Wal-Mart-invested (NYSE: WMT) Yihaodian in addition to traditional retail names like Dell. (Nasdaq: DELL) (English article) President Daniel Zhang was a big cagier about Taobao Mall’s profits, only saying the company’s profit margin has reached that of other Chinese Internet companies. But clearly the company is feeling pressure to go to market sooner rather than later to return some investment dollars to companies like Japan’s Softbank, who have been waiting 7 years now for a return on their money. I’d look for this IPO to happen as soon as Taobao Mall can show some meaningful profits, probably sometime next year. Meantime, sister company Alibaba.com continues to be on the defensive, following a scandal earlier this year where bogus retailers were cheating buyers on the company’s B2B site. (previous post) Chinese media are reporting Alibaba.com has embarked on a campaign to verify the identities of all of its sellers, clearly in a bid to try and restore confidence to buyers whose numbers have plateaued and even started to fall since the scandal began earlier this year. (Chinese article) Look for this PR campaign to continue and for Alibaba.com to post more tepid results for the next year until it regains the trust of the online B2B buying community.

Bottom line: Taobao Mall’s admission of online retailers to its site is hype for an IPO as early as next year, while sister site Alibaba.com’s will need at least a year to rebuild its credibility following a recent scandal.

距离阿里巴巴将淘宝商城从淘宝网拆分仅仅过去3个月，聚焦于B2C的淘宝商城比淘宝网更有发展潜力，并且至早明年就可以准备上市。与此同时，阿里巴巴B2B(HKEx: 1688)作为淘宝网和淘宝商城的姐妹公司，仍在努力消除年初中国供应商丑闻带来的负面影响。昨 天，三个月大的淘宝商城举行了首场独立身份的新闻发布会，预期2012年交易额目标为2000亿元(合313亿美元)，为今年交易额的2倍。会上还宣布淘 宝商城除了像以往那样和传统品牌如戴尔(Nasdaq: DELL)合作外还会与网店结盟，比如沃尔玛(NYSE: WMT)投资的一号店。淘宝商城总裁张勇对其利润守口如瓶，仅仅说与目前的中国互联网公司持平。但是显然公司面临早日上市以回报投资者的压力，软银已经为 投资回报等待了7年之久。我认为一旦淘宝宣布其利润达到某个关键数值就会上市，时间可能在明年。与此同时，阿里巴巴B2B年初发生的信任危机导致临阵换将，这一事件的影响至今仍未消除。中国媒体报道，阿里巴巴推出一系列新举措以使入住者重拾信任，但上述公关举措是否能如愿让股票表现回到风波之前的水平，仍不明朗。

一句话：淘宝商城对在线零售商的结盟或许是为了可能在明年达成上市而炒作，与此同时阿里巴巴B2B年内仍要致力于消除中国供应商事件的不利影响。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Taobao Split: Separating Wheat From the Chaff 淘宝一分为三 如何取其精华

◙ Taobao Mall Takes Hit with Drug Sale Ban 中国规范网络售药 或重创淘宝商城

◙ Alibaba Resignations: Is the Magic Gone?

 

Wal-Mart Finds Bargain in China’s Internet Bubble

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Yihaodian, the online merchant that made headlines earlier this year when it got an investment from global retail giant Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) (previous post) looks like the latest company to show signs of distress in China’s growing Internet bubble, following a report that gives it a surprisingly low valuation. According to the report, which cites an unnamed industry source, Wal-Mart, which bought an unspecified stake in the online retailer earlier this year, recently bought another 20 percent for a relatively modest $65 million. (English article) Some simple math will show this puts Yihaodian’s value at about $325 million if the report is correct. The same report cites Yihaodian’s chairman saying reports that Wal-Mart will take over the company are incorrect and that the size of the stake purchase is incorrect as well. But even if the numbers are slightly off, this market valuation for what is presumably an up-and-coming online retailer looks tiny compared to numbers being mentioned for other e-commerce firms, most notably an estimated $10 billion valuation given earlier this year by investors in 360Buy, China’s second biggest online merchant which is now hiring an investment bank for an IPO to raise up to $5 billion. (previous post) I realize that Yihaodian is much smaller than both 360Buy as well as leading online retailer Taobao Mall, owned by Alibaba Group. Still, this $325 million valuation looks like a real bargain for Wal-Mart, and no doubt represents an attempt by the worried seller of the stake, in this case Yihaodian’s controlling shareholder Ping An Insurance (HKEx: 2318; Shenzhen: 601318), to get back some of its investment before China’s Internet bubble bursts. As the Internet bubble swells and starts to pop, look for more of these sales at bargain prices as investors try to recoup some of their investments before it’s too late.

Bottom line: Wal-Mart’s purchase of 20 percent of online retailer Yihaodian for a bargain price will be followed by similar sales, as investors try to recoup their money before China’s Internet bubble bursts.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ 360Buy $5 Bln IPO Plan Looks Like Desperation 京东商城50亿美元上市计划凸显绝望

◙ Wal-Mart Buys Into China E-Commerce 沃尔玛进军中国电子商务

◙ Gaopeng, Kaixin Spotlight China Internet Turmoil 高朋网、开心网凸显中国互联网混乱现状

Yahoo: A Good Time to Break From Alibaba? 雅虎与阿里巴巴分手时机还不成熟

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Just two days after Carol Bartz’s high-profile departure from Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), the inevitable first reports are already emerging that the US search giant is in talks to sell its troublesome 40 percent stake in Alibaba Group. (English article) I’m guessing this report, which cites an unnamed source, is probably very preliminary, as any such talks wouldn’t have started until after Bartz’s firing on Wednesday. What’s more, Yahoo’s acting CEO is just filling the position on an interim basis, meaning he would be highly unlikely to make such a major decision until a new permanent CEO arrives. But such a sale will inevitably be discussed, and I just want to take this opportunity to say that this is exactly NOT the time to consider such a move. I agree that the Alibaba stake was a major distraction for Bartz during her stormy tenure, and that I said once or twice that the company should try to sell it to focus on its own turnaround story. But the fact is, Alibaba and Yahoo could potentially really help each other, which is the main reason the former sold 40 percent of itself to the latter in 2006 when Yahoo was headed by Jerry Yang, good friend of Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma. If Yahoo’s new CEO can build a good working relationship with Ma, there are many places this pair could benefit each other. Yahoo has a solid global network in search and e-commerce that could both greatly benefit the global aspirations of Alibaba’s two e-commerce sites, Alibaba.com (HKEx: 1688) and Taobao. From Yahoo’s perspective, it could leverage Alibaba’s position as China’s top e-commerce company to make another play for the China search market, especially after Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) high profile departure last year that left Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) with a near monopoly that is clearly making Beijing uncomfortable. Of course we’ll need to see who Yahoo picks as its new CEO, but if it’s smart it will bring Jack Ma into the process to hopefully find someone who can take advantage of this troubled but potentially lucrative relationship.

Bottom line: Yahoo would be well advised to delay considering a sale of its Alibaba stake, and should instead focus on finding a new CEO who can work well with the Chinese company.

仅在雅虎(YHOO.O)解雇首席执行官（CEO）巴茨（Carol Bartz）两天之後，已经有报导称雅虎正在商谈出售所持有的阿里巴巴公司40%股权。我猜这篇援引未具名人士的报导内容可能非常不成熟，这种重要的谈判在巴茨周三被解雇之前并不会开始。此外，雅虎的代理CEO只是临时应急，也就是说在新CEO到任前，他绝无可能作出这个重要决定。然而，商讨出售阿里巴巴股权将无可避免，我也想借这个机会说，现在绝不是考虑采取行动的好时机。我也认为阿里巴巴股权问题是巴茨在任期间让她主要困扰的问题。我曾说过一两次，雅虎应该尝试出售持有的阿里巴巴股权，聚焦于改善自身经营业绩状况。但是，阿里巴巴和雅虎事实上存在真正相互支持的可能性，这也是前者在2006年将40%股权售予雅虎的主要原因。当时雅虎的CEO是杨致远，也是阿里巴巴董事局主席马云的好朋友。如果雅虎的新任CEO能够与马云建立良好的工作关系，两家公司在很多方面可以实现互惠互利。雅虎拥有稳固的全球搜索和电子商务网络，可以极大惠及阿里巴巴旗下两家电子网站--阿里巴巴和淘宝的全球发展目标。从雅虎的角度来看，可以利用阿里巴巴在中国电子商务领域的龙头地位，在中国搜索市场再做文章。尤其是在谷歌去年高调离开之後，百度获得了接近垄断的行业地位，这明显让中国政府感到不安。当然，我们需要看看雅虎挑选谁来担任CEO，但是雅虎如果足够聪明的话，将请马云参与到寻找合适人选的过程中，处理好目前陷入困难但仍有希望改善的双方关系。

一句话：雅虎应该延後考虑出售所持阿里巴巴的股权，聚焦于加快寻找能够与阿里巴巴睦邻互惠的新任CEO。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Bartz Departs: Time to Reset Alibaba, Yahoo Relationship 雅虎解雇CEO或是阿里巴巴与之冰释前嫌的良机

◙ Alibaba in Alipay Deal: Jack Ma Wins Again 支付宝股权纷争尘埃落定 马云公关赚钱两不误

◙ Alibaba’s Ma In Unusual Defensive Posture 阿里巴巴马云的防守战