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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
A sudden flurry of activity has caught my attention at Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU), one of China’s oldest Internet portals, which has splashed into the headlines several times in the last couple of months after years of being ignored by investors. What has most caught my attention most this time around was a comment in one of the recent reports that Sohu founder and Chairman Charles Zhang was recently experiencing some kind of emotional fatigue, which leads me to wonder if the company may be headed for a breakup. Read Full Post…
SNS moves beyond idle chatter in after Ya’an quake
The Ya’an earthquake now already 2 weeks ago has cast an interesting new spotlight on China’s vibrant field of social networking services (SNS), showing a different side to these sites that are largely seen as little more than frivolous, time-wasting toys. As a frequent user of Chinese sites like Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo, Tencent (HKEx: 700) WeChat and Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), I can personally testify that I mostly use these sites to fill up idle time at home or on the subway, often when I’m trying to procrastinate or am just feeling bored. But these sites are suddenly earning new praise as a critical communication tool during the Ya’an earthquake, arguably the first major global disaster since SNS services began their meteoric rise less than a decade ago. Read Full Post…
Less than 2 weeks after buying a major stake in leading Chinese microblogging site Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo, e-commerce leader Alibaba is back on the acquisition track with word that it’s on the cusp of another deal to buy a similar strategic stake in mapping services firm AutoNavi (Nasdaq: AMAP). While this newest deal would be a bit smaller than the Weibo tie-up, it marks the latest transaction in a nascent M&A wave among China tech firms that looks set to gain momentum during the rest of the year. Read Full Post…
Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) colorful but low-key Chairman Pony Ma is suddenly losing his shyness at a major Internet conference in Beijing, where he is clearly in his preferred environment mixing with lots of other Internet geeks and techies. Media have been buzzing these last few days with words from the head of China’s biggest Internet firm, with much of the talk centered on Tencent’s hot mobile instant messaging platform called WeChat or Weixin in Chinese. Ma has addressed 2 of the key questions facing WeChat, both centered on how the service can generate profits for Tencent from its base of 300 million users. Read Full Post…
Note: Since originally writing this post, Sina and Alibaba have formally announced their tie-up. (company announcement) Under the deal, Alibaba has purchased 18 percent of Sina Weibo for $586 million, valuing Weibo at about $3.3 billion. The pair said they expect the alliance to generate $380 million in revenue for Weibo over the next 3 years. Sina shares jumped nearly 10 percent after the news came out.
Weibo, Alibaba in new tie-up
It looks like I may have been premature in declaring last month that talks for a tie-up between leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and e-commerce leader Alibaba were dead. According to the latest reports, the pair have resuscitated their negotiations that began late last year and later collapsed due to disagreement over a valuation for Sina’s popular Weibo microblogging platform. Now media are reporting the talks have quietly resumed in recent weeks, and a deal could be announced very soon. (English article; Chinese article) Read Full Post…
New government data on mobile text messaging, also known as SMS, is underscoring how this former cash cow for China’s telcos is quickly losing its audience, forcing the carriers to quickly look for replacement revenue sources. The new data also adds some new perspective to the high-profile clash between leading telco China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) and top Internet player Tencent (HKEx: 700) that erupted last month, as the former accused the latter of stealing its SMS business.
The list of companies looking to invest in Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging platform continues to grow with word that online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) has become the latest suitor to woo the popular social networking site (SNS). Word of Baidu’s interest comes weeks after e-commerce leader Alibaba was also reportedly seeking a similar tie-up with Sina, though that deal was said to have reached an impasse after the companies failed to agree on a price. (previous post) Frankly speaking, all 3 of these leading Internet companies seems to be a bit hyperactive at the moment with unrelated internal activities, prompting me to wonder if each potentially has too many distractions to craft a deal that will ultimately be good for anyone.
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 27. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Denies Alibaba to Invest in Weibo Rumor (Chinese article)
NDRC to Probe Authenticity of E-Commerce Promotions During Chinese New Year (Chinese article)
It seems that Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo isn’t the only company worried about the rapid rise of WeChat, the wildly popular mobile social networking service (SNS) operated by leading Internet company Tencent (HKEx: 700). That’s my interpretation of the situation, following a recent war of words that has broken out between Tencent and China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL), China’s dominant mobile carrier. But in this new tussle, Tencent needs to move very carefully since China Mobile is not only a competitor but is also in the powerful position of being able to limit or even completely cut off its more than 700 million mobile subscribers from access to WeChat, more commonly known by its Chinese name of Weixin.
An epic battle on the Chinese Internet is shaping up for the New Year, pitting dominant social networking site (SNS) Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo against up-and-coming challenger WeChat, also known by its Chinese name Weixin. The looming battle in many ways reflects the rapid rise in China of the mobile Internet, where WeChat has found an eager new audience that likes to use SNS all the time instead of only at desktop computers where Sina Weibo dominates.
I was surprised to see reports today that Alibaba and Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) have reached an impasse in their rumored negotiations for the former to buy a strategic stake in the latter, since both sides clearly want this deal to happen as it would greatly benefit both. But then I had a closer look at the reports, and my conclusion is simply that the 2 sides are still negotiating in an attempt to place a value on Sina, whose popular and increasingly influential Weibo microblogging service lies at the heart of their planned tie-up. Such disagreement is standard for this kind of negotiation, and I fully expect the 2 sides to reach a deal that should be one of the most significant tie-ups we’ve seen for China’s Internet space since the merger of leading online video sites Youku (NYSE: YOKU) and Tudou earlier this year.
The list of companies looking to invest in Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging platform continues to grow with word that online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) has become the latest suitor to woo the popular social networking site (SNS). Word of Baidu’s interest comes weeks after e-commerce leader Alibaba was also reportedly seeking a similar tie-up with Sina, though that deal was said to have reached an impasse after the companies failed to agree on a price. (
It seems that Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo isn’t the only company worried about the rapid rise of WeChat, the wildly popular mobile social networking service (SNS) operated by leading Internet company Tencent (HKEx: 700). That’s my interpretation of the situation, following a recent war of words that has broken out between Tencent and China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL), China’s dominant mobile carrier. But in this new tussle, Tencent needs to move very carefully since China Mobile is not only a competitor but is also in the powerful position of being able to limit or even completely cut off its more than 700 million mobile subscribers from access to WeChat, more commonly known by its Chinese name of Weixin.
I was surprised to see reports today that Alibaba and Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) have reached an impasse in their rumored negotiations for the former to buy a strategic stake in the latter, since both sides clearly want this deal to happen as it would greatly benefit both. But then I had a closer look at the reports, and my conclusion is simply that the 2 sides are still negotiating in an attempt to place a value on Sina, whose popular and increasingly influential Weibo microblogging service lies at the heart of their planned tie-up. Such disagreement is standard for this kind of negotiation, and I fully expect the 2 sides to reach a deal that should be one of the most significant tie-ups we’ve seen for China’s Internet space since the merger of leading online video sites Youku (NYSE: YOKU) and Tudou earlier this year.
