Newly listed companies are becoming popular investment targets for some of China’s tech giants, with online classified site 58.com (NYSE: WUBA) and video sharing site Xunlei (Nasdaq: XNET) both picking up major new backers in the form of Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Xiaomi, respectively. Meantime in other IPO news, a long-delayed domestic IPO for the website of the official Xinhua news agency is finally moving ahead, some 2 and a half years after a deal was first rumored. The case of Xinhuanet is particularly interesting because Xinhua and People’s Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper whose People.com (Shanghai: 603000) website is already listed, recently merged their 2 money-losing online search sites. Read Full Post…
A new complaint in Europe by smartphone maker ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) is shining a spotlight on Chinese gadget makers’ dependence on foreign technology, which often ends up making them hostages to big western patent holders. I personally find ZTE’s new complaint against Vringo just slightly amusing, since ZTE and crosstown rival Huawei are consistently among the world’s largest global patent recipients these last few years — a fact both companies love to trumpet. Apparently many of those patents aren’t worth too much, which leaves companies like ZTE still quite reliant on foreign technology. Read Full Post…
The World Cup kick-off seems like an appropriate theme for this week’s wrap of the microblogging realm, where a series of verbal sparring matches has broken out among a number of tech officials. One of the most entertaining saw a ZTE (HKE: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) smartphone executive launch a sarcastic assault at Xiaomi’s Lei Jun, who was spouting his usual nonstop promotional hype. While ZTE went on the offensive, executives from e-commerce firms Jumei (Nasdaq: JMEI) and Vancl were on the defensive, deflecting accusations and insinuations against their companies and executives. Meantime, a top JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) executive provided some lighter entertainment with his own reminiscences of watching actual World Cup games in his younger years. Read Full Post…
A couple of new headlines are highlighting Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) lackluster performance in China in the first part of this year, as the smartphone pioneer falls behind homegrown sensation Xiaomi and takes much needed steps to improve its China App Store. In one of the reports, media are saying that Apple trailed Xiaomi for the first time in the first quarter of this year. Meantime, another report is saying that Apple is embarking on a major drive to recruit more China developers to make local apps for its iPhone, since a strong selection of good apps is key to maintaining its popularity in the market. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 7-9. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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COFCO Meat Brings in KKR, Baring PE, HOPU, Boyu as Strategic Investors (Businesswire)
China Mobile (HKEx: 941) Rolls Out Own-Brand 4G Phone Selling For 999 Yuan (Chinese article)
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Steps Up Campaign To Woo China Developers (English article)
Xiaomi China Sales Surpass Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) In Q1 (Chinese article)
Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) Announces Pricing Of Offering Of 8.8 Mln ADSs (PRNewswire)
Shanghai is quickly emerging as ground zero for the world’s top 2 gaming console makers to enter China, with word that Sony (Tokyo: 6753) has formed a new local tie-up aimed at bringing its PlayStation to the market. The company’s new plan comes just weeks after word emerged of a similar plan by rival Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) for its popular Xbox in partnership with another Shanghai media company. Both companies are seeking to tap China’s massive appetite for electronic gaming, after Beijing recently lifted a decade-long ban on the sale of foreign consoles in the market. Read Full Post…
China’s crowded field of smartphone makers is quickly splitting into 2 camps as companies step out of their overheated home market in search of new growth opportunities. One group of larger, better-funded players like Huawei, ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) and Lenovo (HKEx: 992) are choosing bigger, trickier markets like Western Europe and India, where campaigns can be costly but potential rewards are bigger. The second group consists of younger more entrepreneurial firms that are eying smaller emerging markets. The latest member of that group is Oppo Electronics, which is hinting at a launch in Singapore.
Meantime, Li Guoqing, the talkative co-founder of fading e-commerce pioneer Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), spent much of the past week regaling followers with laments about his own shortcomings as a father. I found Li’s series of posts about his sputtering relationship with his son both interesting and revealing. The musings, which sound almost desperate at times, hint that perhaps Li’s attention is shifting to a neglected personal life as his business empire that was one of China’s earliest e-commerce players shows rapid signs of aging. Read Full Post…
We’ll end the week with a couple of smartphone news bits, including reports that Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is in talks to start a China-based recycling program and new data that show TCL’s (HKEx: 2618; Shenzhen: 000100) smartphone sales nearly tripled in the first 4 months of the year. Of the 2 news bits, Apple’s is most interesting not only because of its big name, but also because it shows the company is finally taking steps to boost its image as a good corporate citizen in China. TCL’s story looks interesting because it’s one of the few Chinese handset makers that derives the bulk of its smartphone revenue from overseas, which looks like a safer strategy due to the current state of overheated competition in the domestic market. Read Full Post…
It’s been a quiet week in the microblogging realm, due to the 3 day May Day holiday that saw much of China closed down for the latter part of the week to enjoy the arrival of spring. The vacation didn’t see any slowdown in the ongoing smartphone price wars in China, which are forcing local players to look overseas to escape the overheated domestic market. Mid-sized player Vivo became the latest player to look outside China, starting down a path that looks similar to that being blazed by smartphone sensation Xiaomi.
Meantime, top executives from car website Autohome (NYSE: ATHM) and software security maker Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) were having a bit more fun on their holidays. The vacation saw Autohome founder Li Xiang, and Qihoo’s controversial CEO Zhou Hongyi both take a break from their usual business thoughts to make some entertaining posts on their microblogs, showing how they like to spend their non-working time. Read Full Post…
Four years after its high-profile withdrawal from China’s online search market over censorship issues, global Internet giant Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is showing growing signs that it’s gearing up for a new play at the country’s lucrative and less controversial hardware market. Media are reporting the world’s largest online search company has formed a new tie-up that will see it exhibit its cutting-edge glasses product, Google Glass, in partnership with Suning (Shenzhen: 002024), one of China’s leading electronics retailers. Read Full Post…
I’ve become a fan of smartphone sensation Xiaomi over these past 2 years, not because I actually own one of their phones but because I’m continually amazed at how good the company is at manipulating the media and general public to create buzz around its products. So I was somewhat puzzled and even a bit disappointed to read about the company’s choice of English name for its new global brand, which included a hefty price tag to purchase the relevant Internet domain.
Meantime, another master of buzz was also well represented in the microblogging realm, as Elon Musk, CEO of electric car sensation Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA), won kudos and praise from many of the tech world’s top executives. Last but not least was a quirky microblog post from an executive at fading smartphone maker HTC (Taipei: 2498), showing that Edward Snowden was quite the common man. The HTC executive revealed the US intelligence super-leaker opted for super-cheap accommodations and dined on ordinary fast food during his brief stay in Hong Kong last year. Read Full Post…
