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Tag Archives: Weibo
latest Financial News of Sina Weibo , by Doug Young, expert of Chinese Business (former Reuters journalist in China).
SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA) Business and Financial report
Social networking apps (SNS) have become the flavor of the day among Chinese Internet firms, especially in the mobile space, and it’s rare to go more than a week or two without reports of a big new move by a major player in the space. Amid all that chatter, I was intrigued to read the latest report of an interesting new tie-up between leading microblog operator Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo and appliance maker Hisense (Shanghai: 600060) into the unlikely field of smart air conditioners. Read Full Post…
Chinese Internet companies have never been afraid to venture outside their core business areas, and that trend continues with word that e-commerce heavyweights Alibaba and Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) are making new forays into education and finance, respectively. Frankly speaking, this recent venturing of some companies so far outside their core competencies doesn’t look all that smart to me, and is the result of a “follow the herd” mentality that’s being driven by a few companies with lots of cash that they want to invest. But that said, these 2 latest cases do look relatively logical and probably have good chances for success. Read Full Post…
Internet leaders Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Alibaba are in a recent war to see who can win the most headlines for online M&A, which has suddenly accelerated in China after years of inactivity. In the last 24 hours alone, media are reporting that Alibaba has finalized a deal to team with Hunan Satellite Television to purchase PPTV, one of China’s top video sharing sites. Not to be outdone, Baidu was reported earlier this week to be in late-stage talks to buy group buying site Nuomi (previous post), and has just announced the finalization of its previously announced $1.9 billion plan to buy online app store 91Wireless. (company announcement) Read Full Post…
After a wait of more than 2 years, Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) hugely popular Weibo microblogging platform is finally realizing some of its potential, raising the possibility we could finally see an IPO for the Twitter-like service in the next year. People started buzzing about a Weibo IPO as early as late 2010, when the service first began its meteoric rise after Beijing blocked the original Twitter in 2009. But then investors quickly cooled to the idea of an IPO, as it became apparent that Sina Weibo might take a long time to become profitable and a separate series of accounting scandals rocked the broader sector of US-listed Chinese stocks.Read Full Post…
The headlines have been buzzing with news about the rollout of the latest edition WeChat, which is being called a major overhaul as operator Tecent (HKEx: 700) tries to commercialize the wildly popular mobile instant messaging service. At the same time, media are reporting that WeChat has achieved another major milestone in its new tie-up with telco China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), with up to a million people pre-registering for the new Unicom-based WeChat service in the first 2 days after it became available. Read Full Post…
I don’t usually have many positive things to say about Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), China’s second largest mobile carrier that has been in a state of management gridlock for most of the last 4 years after its formation through the merger of 2 smaller telcos. But I commended the company earlier this year for its stance on WeChat, the popular mobile messaging service operated by Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700), and am praising it once again for its new market-oriented tie-up with WeChat. At the same time, we’re seeing other interesting news on the WeChat front with word that Alibaba has recently stopped offering its e-commerce services over the popular social networking (SNS) platform. Read Full Post…
After a false start earlier this year following their landmark equity tie-up, top web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and e-commerce leader Alibaba are reportedly preparing for a second bid to combine online shopping with social networking. This second initiative involves the roll-out of a completely new platform that will try to bring Alibaba’s e-commerce services to the more than 500 million registered users of Sina’s popular Weibo microblogging service, often called the Twitter of China. We’ll have to see the actual product before drawing any major conclusions, but I do think this approach looks better than other initial clumsy efforts after the pair announced their tie-up back in April Read Full Post…
Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging platform is moving in many different directions these days, this time adding a major video component through a new tie-up with online video leader Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU). This new tie-up looks smart in some ways, as it pairs 2 leaders in online entertainment spaces that look complementary. But at the same time, Sina needs to be careful in its zealous campaign to commercialize Weibo, or risk alienating its millions of users and eventually driving them away to a growing array of rival products entering the market. Read Full Post…
I have to commend Alibaba founder Jack Ma for his ability to keep his company in the headlines with growing frequency lately, as he seeks to build hype in the run-up to the e-commerce leader’s massive IPO. At the same time, however, Ma runs the very real risk of media burnout if his company continues to flood the market with this steady stream of news bits, even if many of them are truly newsworthy. Read Full Post…
As today marks the unofficial end of a long earnings season, I thought I would take a look at the latest numbers from Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), 2 former superstars that are trying to make difficult transitions to remain relevant on the Chinese Internet. Frankly speaking, the numbers from both companies don’t look very exciting and seem to reflect continuing difficulties at both companies. But investors seem to be overlooking the troubles and instead are focusing on the few bits of good news in the reports, with shares of both companies posting solid gains after their financials came out. Read Full Post…
After years of inactivity, China’s Internet sector has seen a sudden flurry of M&A deals with potential to consolidate the fragmented space and create some truly world class companies that could one day compete with the likes of Amazon and Google. While commercial factors are mostly behind this sudden M&A spring, Beijing could also play a limited role by encouraging more consolidation, helping to lay the foundation for a vibrant and sustainable Internet sector that could become a global leader. Read Full Post…
