Alibaba executive Patrick Liu Chunning arrested by Chinese authorities in corruption probe July 10, 2015 Senior Alibaba executive Patrick Liu Chunning has been arrested over allegations of corruption during his time at Tencent, a rival Chinese internet firm. Read more: Alibaba wants to create China's HBO and Netflix equivalent In a statement Alibaba insisted the Chinese authorities' probe had "nothing to do with" its own operations. Liu is vice president of [...]
China’s Baidu sees shares jump by over six per cent as company reveals growth in mobile business October 29, 2015 Chinese search engine Baidu saw shares shoot up by over six per cent in after hours trading, after the company said its solid third quarter performance had given it confidence to keep investing The figures The company reported earnings per share of 7.92 renminbi (£0.81) for the three months to 30 September, surpassing analysts' expectations [...]
Uber China raises $1.2bn led by Baidu while local rival Didi Kuaidi bags $3bn September 7, 2015 China is the new battleground for Uber – and now it has landed billions to fund a fight against a rival which calls the country home turf. Speaking to Chinese media, Uber boss Travis Kalanick confirmed UberChina has bagged at least $1.2bn (£787m) in its latest round of funding, with the investment led by one of [...]
Xiaomi is spending $1bn on Internet TV content to takeover China’s smart TV market and rival Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent November 4, 2014 Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker, is planning to spend up to $1bn (£625m) on online TV content in an effort to dominate the smart TV market. The three-year-old company has already overtaken established players in the smartphone market to become the third largest in the world and is now setting its sites on the billion [...]
Alibaba wants to create China’s HBO and Netflix equivalent June 14, 2015 Alibaba is releasing a Netflix-style streaming service in two months, the firm's head of digital entertainment revealed today. The service will be called Tmall Box Office – "TBO" for short – and will feature Alibaba-produced content as well as programming acquired from China and other territories. Read more: Alibaba Pictures share price tumbles following $1.6bn placement [...]
Global social media advertising spend surpasses £10bn in 2014 April 2, 2015 Global spend on social media advertising rose by 41 per cent in 2014 reaching a record $15.3bn (£10.3bn). A new report from technology advisors Strategy Analytics found that as global social network users surpassed 2bn users for the first time, 11 per cent of global digital ad spend went to social networks. Facebook was the [...]
WeChat app boosts Chinese internet service portal Tencent’s profit August 13, 2014 Tencent, China’s leading internet service portal, yesterday reported a 59 per cent jump in profit during the quarter to the end of June on the back of a boom in smartphone gaming and mobile messaging. Mobile game revenue from its messaging app WeChat, and social network Mobile QQ, jumped two-thirds to 3bn yuan (£291.7m) in [...]
Alibaba acquires Chinese distribution rights to BMG artists including Rolling Stones, John Legend and Kings of Leon March 30, 2015 Alibaba has signed a digital distribution deal with German music rights company BMG, bringing over 2.5m copyrights of artists such as The Rolling Stones, will.i.am and Foo Fighters to the Chinese e-commerce giant. For BMG, the deal represents a chance to make its artists accessible to a potentially vast Chinese market while for Alibaba it [...]
“One small step for WeBank, one giant step for financial reform”: China opens its first private bank under pilot scheme to help small businesses grow January 6, 2015 Yesterday, China opened its first web-only private bank, with the intention of helping small and micro-sized enterprises secure loans that commercial lenders are often unwilling to give them, due to a higher perceived risk compared to larger companies. Chinese investment company Tencent owns 50 per cent of the new bank, dubbed WeBank (see what [...]
Chinese media giants rivalling US dominance December 7, 2014 CHINA is gaining ground on America’s dominance of the world’s biggest digital media companies with the Asian powerhouse now accounting for two of the six largest online media firms, by revenues generated. Baidu, the Chinese internet search firm, and Tencent, the Chinese online services giant, both reached the top six with revenues of $3.4bn (£2.2bn) [...]