Bottom line: Xiaomi’s release of a new model and addition of a high-profile investor in India reflect the market’s key role in its global expansion this year, with a likely target of 4 million or more unit sales.
Xiaomi in new India launch
Smartphone sensation Xiaomi is working hard to repair its position in India, following a setback late last year that saw some of its higher end products locked out of the market over a patent dispute. Now the company is making a big new push at the lower end of the market, choosing India for its first product launch outside of China. At the same time, the company announced it has sold a stake in itself to one of India’s best known tech tycoons, a patriarch at the renowned Tata Group conglomerate.
Both of these news bits come from an event late last week in India, and underscore the growing importance that Xiaomi is placing on the market this year to keep its meteoric growth alive. Xiaomi is banking heavily on global markets to fuel its growth story, now that it is already king of the smartphone hill in its home China market. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 25-27. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Wins Siri Software Patent Appeal In China (English article)
Tencent (HKEx: 700) Doubles Medium-Term Note Program To $10 Bln (HKEx announcement)
Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) To Acquire Chinese Protein-Drink Line For $400 Mln (English article)
Xiaomi Announces New 4i Model For India, Not Available In China (Chinese article)
Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Sues Sogou for Hijacking Traffic Via IME (English article)
Bottom line: ZTE’s patent infringement allegations against Huawei are mostly noise that won’t result in any major legal action, and instead reflect the stiff competition that is plaguing China overheated smartphone market.
ZTE accuses Huawei of IP theft
After several months without any major developments, China’s overheated smartphone market is showing new signs of stress with word that domestic heavyweight ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) is accusing its larger rival Huawei of intellectual property theft. The complaint reflects the intense competition that has plagued China’s smartphone market for the last 2 years, and is likely to claim its first victim or two within the next 12 months.
This particular action also shows that Huawei and ZTE are becoming quite adept at playing the western game of filing lawsuits to protect their intellectual property and attack rivals. Both companies have been sued by their western peers in the past, and their domestic rival Xiaomi suffered a setback last year when it had to stop selling some of its models in India after Ericsson (Stockholm: ERICb) filed a patent complaint. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: China’s “Big 3” Internet tycoons are likely to see their fortunes continue to grow at rates far faster than the broader economy over the next year, and they could even overtake some wealthier real estate magnates.
Jack Ma named China’s richest Internet tycoon
Hong Kong’s Li Ka-shing may still lead the list of wealthiest men in China and Hong Kong, but his traditional formula for success is rapidly losing ground to China’s fast-rising Internet magnates. The heads of China’s “Big 3” Internet firms were all among the top 10 people on this year’s just-published Forbes list of the wealthiest men in China and Hong Kong, spotlighting the huge role that the Internet is playing in China’s economy. Whereas Li’s fortune took decades to build, the founders of Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) made their fortunes much more quickly, mostly over the last decade. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: China’s Ninebot most likely purchased Segway for less than $100 million to get its technology, and could make a New York IPO by 2017 that will value the firm at $2-$5 billion.
Ninebot buys Segway
If you can’t beat ’em, then buy ’em. That seems to be the philosophy at a Chinese firm called Ninebot, which has just announced it has purchased US rival Segway, maker of a trendy type of 2 wheel, stand up vehicle used to travel short distances. The pair of companies previously had a stormy relationship, as Segway had accused Ninebot of intellectual property theft. So this new purchase should formally end the copycat allegations. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: More Chinese online video companies could soon follow LeTV onto the global stage as their home market soars, providing competition in smaller markets to locally entrenched players like Hong Kong’s PCCW and TVB.
LeTV marches into HK
China is generally considered a technology follower rather than a leader, but new data are showing an exciting trend that could see it finally emerge as a global innovator in Internet-connected video services. The factors behind this movement are uniquely Chinese, and stem from a huge pent-up demand in China for quality video services. Such services are finally starting to come from a growing range of private companies led by names like LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104), Xiaomi and Youku Tudou (Nasdaq: YOKU), which are far more innovative and nimble than the stodgy state-run firms that dominate the traditional broadcasting sector.
Those newer companies are showing early signs of trying to go global, using Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian markets as their stepping stones onto the world stage. Such markets are relatively small and rely heavily on western content, making them particularly fertile ground for some of these Chinese firms that can create and distribute content more suitable for Asian audiences. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 16. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Legend Group Files For Hong Kong IPO, 2014 Profit Reaches 4.1 Bln Yuan (Chinese article)
Alibaba Injects $2.5 Bln Online Pharmacy Business Into Alibaba Health (HKEx: 241) (English article)
Bottom line: LeTV’s smartphone gamble, based on relatively cheap phones tied to its video services, could succeed despite tough competition if its newly launched models get positive reviews.
LeTV launches smartphones
Online video sensation LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) is all over the tech headlines this morning, with the formal launch of the first 3 models for its previously announced foray into smartphones. The company is taking a page from its successful business model with smart TVs, once again selling what it’s billing as a relatively high-end product for low prices in a bid to attract customers to its core paid video services.
LeTV’s biggest problem will be finding an audience for these models, as it’s quite late to the smartphone game. That fact is being underscored by new industry data that shows China’s cellphone market contracted 5 percent in March, amid growing signs of saturation due to stiff competition. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 15. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Ganji, 58.com (NYSE: WUBA) To Merge – Report (Chinese article)
Bottom line: Beijing should offer more incentives to local governments to tackle piracy at its roots, or risk seeing homegrown high-flyers like Xiaomi get undermined by fakes.
Xiaomi knock-offs wash up in Germany
China’s fast-rising high-tech sector passed a dubious milestone last week, when media reported that fake copies of smartphones made by local superstar Xiaomi have begun appearing in Germany, marking one of the first such cases for a Chinese brand. Xiaomi wasn’t the only company in the headlines for piracy, as other media reported that fake copies of the new Apple Watch (Nasdaq: AAPL) were already widely available in China, as the US tech giant began taking orders for its latest gadget. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 13-15. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Fake Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Watches Flood China As Order-Taking Begins (Chinese article)
Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Faces Suspension Over Lack Of Censorship (English article)
Fake Xiaomi Products Show Up In Germany, Copiers Being Copied (Chinese article)
Color TV Sales Up 13 Pct In Q1, Online-Connected TV Sales Double (Chinese article)
Cloud Service Provider UCloud Wins $100 Mln Series C Funding (English article)
