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…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 19. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Vacation Rental Site Tujia Completes $100 Mln Series C Funding (English article)
ZTE (HKEx: 763) Files Antitrust Complaint With European Commission Against Vringo (Businesswire)
Guangzhou Daily Withdraws Lawsuit Against Today’s Headlines App (Chinese article)
Huawei Expands In Russian Tech Services After Putin’s China Deal (English article)
Billionaire JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) Founder Lines Up Next Challenge: Beating Alibaba (English article)
Last month’s launch of China’s first new mobile services in a decade is showing early signs of shaking up the market, with competition likely to intensify as more licenses are awarded to a new generation of privately owned virtual network operators (VNOs). According to the latest headlines, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is getting ready to issue its third round of VNO licenses, which allow private companies to sell telecoms services under their own brands by leasing network capacity from the nation’s 3 existing state-run telcos. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 14-16. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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ZTE (HKEx: 763) Targets 100 Mln Annual Cellphone Sales In 3 Years (Chinese article)
Boeing (NYSE: BA) Wins Biggest Ever Order From A Chinese Airline (English article)
MIIT To Issue Third Batch Of VNO Licenses In 1-2 Months (English article)
Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) On Logistics Drive In Yangtze River Economic Belt (PRNewswire)
Line Plans Major China Push This Year, To Set Up Locally-Based Team (Chinese article)
Vancl, JD execs look enviously at news app funding
The microblogging realm was relatively quiet over the past week, as all of China took a moment of silence for the thousands of high school students who had to suffer through the annual torture session also known as the national college entrance exam, or gaokao, held over the weekend. A few tech executives reflected on the gaokao on their microblogs, though none had too much positive to say about an test that places huge pressure on students and is often criticized for its emphasis on rote memorization. Meantime, a couple of other tech executives were full of skepticism and just a touch of envy for a news app that made headlines after it attracted a whopping $100 million in new funding less than 2 years after its founding. Read Full Post…
The embattled telecoms pair of Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) are embarking on major hiring sprees outside their home market, seeking to not only import foreign expertise but also foreign faces as they try to look more global and less Chinese. That’s my major takeaway on reading separate reports that ZTE is launching a drive to recruit workers from 2 struggling western cellphone giants, while Huawei is also hiring thousands of new employees in Europe to cater to its largest market outside of China.
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 11. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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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…
Chinese workers who quit their jobs at IBM (NYSE: IBM) this spring rather than take new positions at Lenovo (HKEx: 992) under an M&A deal may be regretting their decision, with word that the deal may derail due to US national security concerns. Of course I’m being just a tad facetious with my comment about the former IBM workers, but I’m quite serious about the doubts that are suddenly swirling around the deal announced early this year for IBM to sell its low-end server business to Lenovo. The latest reports are a bit more neutral, though I would now give the deal just a 50 percent chance of getting clearance from the US national security regulator. Read Full Post…
The latest reports that Beijing is pressuring Chinese banks to stop using high-end servers from computing giant IBM (NYSE: IBM) don’t come as a huge surprise, amid escalating tensions between China and the US over cyber spying. This particular development is just the latest in a series of similar moves that dates back to last year, when Beijing began quietly pressuring many big state-run firms to stop using US tech products following revelations from the Edward Snowden cyber-spying scandal. The ironic element of Beijing’s anti-foreign tech campaign is that it could actually make the nation’s technology networks and systems even more vulnerable to spying, since most domestic products are far less sophisticated than their foreign counterparts. Read Full Post…
