Weibo: Alibaba IPO, iPhone 6 Draw Praise, Comparisons

Two major news events were at the center of the microblogging realm this past week, as tech executives from across the spectrum commented on the blockbuster IPO for Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and the debut of latest iPhone from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). Executives were generally full of praise for the Alibaba IPO, which shattered numerous records when the stock began trading last Friday in New York. But there were also some hints of jealousy, as top executives from fast-fading e-commerce rival Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) and security software maker Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) suffered from valuation envy.

Meantime, domestic smartphone makers Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) took advantage of the iPhone’s formal launch last Friday to tout their own products, which are far cheaper and enjoy a reputation for reasonable quality. But unlike the iPhone, Huawei and ZTE still suffer from the “Made in China” stigma, and don’t command anything near the level of respect and buzz that the iPhone gets.

Let’s start our weekly microblogging round-up with Alibaba, which raced into the record books with a New York IPO that looks set to become the biggest of all time. The company raised $21.8 billion in the actual offering, placing it behind Agricultural Bank of China (HKEx: 1288; Shanghai: 601288), which holds the record for the world’s largest IPO after its $22.1 billion offering in 2010. But reports over the weekend indicated Alibaba was issuing additional shares due to the big popularity of its IPO, potentially bringing its total fund raising to as much as $25 billion. (English article)

Its shares surged 38 percent in their trading debut, making Alibaba the world’s second largest Internet company behind only US search titan Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). Among industry observers, one of the company’s biggest admirers was Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) CEO Charles Chao, who posted a photo from the opening bell ceremony along with praise to Alibaba founder Jack Ma for letting 8 of his employees represent the company at the ceremony. (microblog post)

Of course it’s worth noting that Jack Ma is one of Chao’s biggest shareholders, after Alibaba purchased a major stake in Sina’s Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) microblogging unit last year. Shi Yuzhu, another good friend of Ma’s and founder of the recently privatized gaming company Giant Interactive, also posted a photo of the ceremony and noted how everyone was chanting “BABA” at the opening. (microblog post)

There was also just a hint of valuation envy in the microblog posts from Qihoo CEO Zhou Hongyi, as well from Dangdang CEOL Li Guoqing. Qihoo is one of China’s more valuable tech firms with a market cap of nearly $10 billion, while Dangdang is a bit smaller at around $1 billion. But both of those figures pale in comparison to Alibaba’s valuation which reached $230 billion after its meteoric debut.

Zhou was mostly full of praise for Alibaba, also commending Ma for allowing his employees to take the limelight at the bell-ringing ceremony. He commented that doing business on the Internet was like a pig’s body dressed in sheep’s wool, and credited Ma with being the one to “break the cow”. (microblog post)

I personally don’t follow all those animal references, but to me the comparisons to so many farm animals do hint at just the slightest attempts to belittle Ma and his accomplishments. On a similar note, Dangdang’s Li Guoqing couldn’t help but use the situation to congratulate Ma, but then remarked how his own firm was China’s first e-commerce company to go public 4 years ago, paving the way for Alibaba’s strong reception. (microblog post)

While Alibaba’s IPO was center stage, the iPhone’s release the same day also provided fodder for Huawei senior vice president Yu Chengdong to hype his company’s own smartphones. Huawei is fast gaining a reputation for phones that are of solid quality, but hasn’t come close to matching the iPhone’s trendy reputation. Yu’s frustration at that lack of recognition has shown up repeatedly over the last few weeks in his microblog posts, and this week he was once again posting photos and other comments to show how his company’s phones compared favorably with the new iPhone. (microblog post)

Meantime, crosstown rival ZTE vice president Zeng Xuezhong was also using the iPhone launch to tout his own company’s smartphones. He said he had tried out a new iPhone and described how his own company’s new Star 1 model came close in performance. (microblog post) Another ZTE executive Luo Hongping made a separate promotional post after Chinese President Xi Jinping, who visited India last week, gave a ZTE smartphone as a gift to leaders during the trip abroad. (microblog post) Perhaps Xi is a fan, but both ZTE and Huawei still have a long way to go to convince the world they’re in the same league as Apple and the iPhone.