Alibaba Group Experiencing the Cloud
Tag Archives: Alibaba Group
Alibaba gets Tango for its push into the U.S. and the whole Western world
Jack Ma (Alibaba) vs Jeff Bezos ("Experience the Cloud" January 8, 2014]. This is still an important investment because Alibaba needs to own a personal messaging application and public network to compete with Facebook+WhatsApp. Tango's tasks have been a larg e-scale investment of $ 21. 5 billion of Alibaba (assigned 21 or 5 % of the stock package):
... Create WeChat for the western world. We all have a WeChat function, but all of them are westernized.
Uri was once an interview with Wall Street Journal, a c o-founder and CEO of tango. The intensive number of users are 450 million per month, taking WeChat in consideration of 3. 5. 5 millio n-users compared to wasted tango and 70 million. Considering the details in the basics of this presentation, this can definitely be achieved:
Announcement of tango [YouTube Channel TANGOME, March 19, 2014].
Announced $ 280 million funding by Tango and Alibaba. Tango is a mobile notification gift service with more than 200 million users. With communication, social functions and decent platform platforms, Tango users reveal their own interesting communication methods, communication and peace of mind. You can download it for free from iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Kindle Fire, PC website http: // www. Me.
From a tango that you can see at a glance [Bulletin on March 19, 2014]
- Series A -$ 5 million (June 2010). Traiders: Mxb Holdings Wr Hambrecht Long Sea Limited.
- Series B -$ 42 million (June 2011). Traders: 4 DFJ Spa Special Investment Fund.
- Series C -$ 40 million (March 2012). Traders: AI SMS Qualcom DFJ Long Sea Limited
- Series D -$ 280 million (March 2014). Traiders: Alibaba [Wall Street Journal information, alibaba $ 21. 5 billion, for example, 21, 5 % promotional bundles, and at the time of Series D, the company was observed at $ 1b. You]. DFJ Qualcomm Ventures Access Industry Translink Capital TOMS CAPITAL Jerry Yang Bill Tai Alex Zubillaga
Tango’s Latest News: A Vision of The Future and a $280M Funding Round [by Uri and Eric in Tango Me Blog, March 19, 2014], note that my inserts below are from TANGO AT-A-GLANCE [company fact sheet, March 19, 2014] and the TangoME YouTube channel
We launched Tango in September 2009 because we needed to keep in touch with our families. The fact that we were both immigrants from deep within video technology and had a strong entrepreneurial spirit definitely helped us. But it was just the sensual companionship with our families living in other parts of the world that inspired us to create Tango. During this time, it seemed that a gifted online communication that supports words, voice and video calling would break barriers and change the world. The universe agreed: we regulated our one millionth user 1 10 days after launch.
Since then, we have come a long way. The power of free communication has changed our ideas about how we talk to other people. Now, the number of notifications sent in message requests exceeds the number of SMS sent by operators. We are proud that Tango has actually been a part of this turning point in the industry, and even more pleased that Tango has actually become a desirable space for our users, with every opportunity to know and distribute information with friends and family.
Chinese materials company Alibaba invests $215 million in startup Tango [Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2014].
Last summer, Alibaba began blocking Taobao and Tmall merchants from using WeChat to send marketing notifications to customers. Tencent introduced mobile payments last year and increased offers and varieties of purchases on WeChat around that time. According to a text from a person familiar with the company's intentions, it is not planned in the near future to group the Tango application with the company's various e-commerce services, but this will happen with time. Tango will be operated separately from Laiwang. Tango continues to expand Alibaba's portfolio of high-growth U. S. startups as Chinese companies seek to gain a foothold in the United States. Last year, it invested in search engine Quixey Inc. and 2-year-old delivery provider ShopRunner Inc. Alibaba's funding will no doubt help Mountain View, California-based Tango double its employee base to more than 300 this year and provide personalized services to the largest number of creators, URI's chief executive officer once said. Mr. Wang explained that he actually started adding other services, like these games, exchanging photos, and then the triumph of Asian text applications, like these WeChat, Kakao, Line. "We looked at what was really happening in the Land of the Rising Sun, China," he said. "For the first time since 1999, we realized that the speed of innovation in China is faster than here." |
From a tango that you can see at a glance [Bulletin on March 19, 2014]
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- Here is my insert: -Connect & amp; amp; amp; Play with Tango [YouTube Channel Tangome, 18 June 2013].
Tango is affiliated with Gameloft, Bubble Gum Interactive, and other worl d-class developers to provide games with excellent Message Exchange applications.
-Agested games designed for tango: More than 50 developers for tango in real time: More than 50 developers have signed a contract.
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- Click here for my insert: -Search for friends near Tango [YouTube Channel Tangome, July 18, 2013].
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- Click here for my insert song: -Tango Powered by Spotify Video [TANGOME YouTube Channel, 11 November 2013].
Look, listen, and share songs with friends.
-Musical video "Tango" with artist Li z-First unique record using Google Glass [YouTub e-Channel Rizvevo, 11 November 2013This music video is the first music video shot on Google Glass.
-The total number of music heard: Hundreds of millionsAlibaba, a Chinese company, invests $ 215 million in tango startup [The Wall Street Journal, 20 MARCH 2014]
Chinese materials company Alibaba invests $215 million in startup Tango [Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2014].
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Chinese materials company Alibaba invests $215 million in startup Tango [Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2014].
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Tango is a free mobile messaging service with 200 million users. With communication, social features and an engaging content platform, Tango users find fun ways to connect, interact and have fun. Available for iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, Blackberry, Kindle Fire and PC, Tango works across all platforms and networks. The app can be downloaded at http://www.
More on Tango as it is:
The messaging app, which has been awarded, is now a source of games around the world. Let's chat with hundreds of millions of people around the world! Let's play with Tango!
Tango Free Voice, Video and Text [Tangome YouTube Channel, 10 September 2012] Let's play with tango!
You can now send photos to all TANGO friends and try the latest games during video calls!
And the first anniversary was proudly celebrated with the appropriate results: Tango existed for one year! [TANGOME YouTube channel, September 30, 2011].
See the many achievements of Tango's release for one year!
You don't have to feel the pressure to submit your message details to Facebook.
rumorLast week, Facebook acquired the messaging app Whatsapp for $ 19 billion, surprising the Tech world.
The acquisition was considered a victory for the two: Facebook got important services that had no time to implement, and small new companies gained a jackpot. However, the negative aspect of the acquisition was large on the shoulders of the user, the personal data of 450 million (MAU: monthly active user), which was reached by Facebook.
Whether you want to break up with Facebook, both those who are looking for the next excellent messaging app, have a list of mobile messaging apps worth checking.
After Facebook acquired WhatsApp, nearly 5 million people registered in Telegram. Elegant and easy to use as a messaging service.
Telegram
Telegram, which was developed by a no n-profit organization based in Berlin, operates on the cloud and is highly encrypted, so users are both mobile and desktop PCs for messages and documents through many devices. You can get all the opportunities to access. The company also states that Telegram is a free service, and that is, that is, users do not need to pay advertising or subscription fees.
Telegram can be used on iOS and Android. Creators have all the opportunities to access the application API and enter Telegram's sincere seed code.
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Wickr
Wickr is completely anonymous. Because this application rarely requires your information. Apart from this, Wickr is beyond the secret level and is consistent with HIPAA's claim. As a result, people who work in the field of medical care, law execution, and journalism will boldly apply WickR for no n-dangerous exchanges, taking into account the fact that they are not tracked or actually reproduced. There are all opportunities.
Wickr is available on iOS and Android.
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Line
The application has been highly evaluated around the world, especially in Asia, and has finally appeared in South American bazaars earlier this year. LINE is not a rudimentary application to exchange messages, but extends all kinds of applications, such as games, invitations, LINE cameras and LINE tools in the application. However, applications are free, and help services such as stickers and games create business ventures. In the first quarter of 2013, LINE's sticker resale income was only $ 17 million.
LINE is available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry.
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Kik
According to the company, more than 30 HTML5 applications for exchanging photos, videos and games have been incorporated into the KIK application, and the integrated browser has begun a while ago. KIK also created tools with no n-closed initial code so that creators can create their own websites for mobile devices and enhance them.
Kik can be used on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry.
Mill. [As of March 19, 2014] User.
Tango
{space}150Because of additional functions that exceed voice calls and messaging exchanges, users, such as more classic messaging services, such as WhatsApp, have the potential to increase the confusion, but users are personally personalized their profile. To find a friend who has all the opportunities to do it, introduce it, and identify people who can be noble nearby.
Tango is available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone [WP7 in 2011, not WP8].
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Breaking Up Is Hard
In this regard, what happens in the US electronic commercial market in 2014?
2014: Jack Ma (Alibaba) going against Jeff Bezos (Amazon) et al.
According to the Financial Times A Man of the Year: Jack Ma [December 12, 2013], only the following two excerpts:
This is something new to you? I suggest to read first my previous three analyses: – The Upcoming Mobile Internet Superpower [Aug 13, 2013] – The value of Taobao.com and TMall.com in China, as well as outside [Sept 2, 2013] – Alibaba to secure “centuries” of the future of an already “US$150 billion ecosystem of consumers, merchants and business partners” via an internal partnership (rejuvenated each year) of top executive owners (with just 10% of shares) also controlling the board [Oct 3, 2013] If still in doubt read Amazon Vs. Alibaba: Game On [Seeking Alpha, Dec 26, 2013]
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3. In fact, these quotes from the Chinese media announced in January 2014 are an unusual evidence of Jack Ma's new goal-shaking Chinese finance.
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Tuning up for 2014 reform (2) [Jan 5]:
Carr at North Square Blue Oak … points out that e-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s Yu’ebao fund lured 100 billion yuan( $16.5 billion ) away from the country’s bank deposits in just four months .
“New innovative financial products such as this are already causing quite a lot of disruption to the financial system,” she says.
China Exclusive: Internet finance transforms China’s financial landscape [Jan 7]:
Last year was widely seen as “ground zero for Chinese Internet finance,” partly because of the phenomenon involving “ Yu’E Bao (Leftover Treasure)”, a personal online finance product introduced in June by Internet giant Alibaba . It allows users to place their driblet savings — no less than one yuan — into a money market fund.
As of the end of 2013, Yu’E Bao had 43.03 million users with aggregate deposits of 185.3 billion yuan ( 30.4 billion U.S. dollars ), the biggest single public fund in China . Internet finance has for the first time become part of life for many Chinese people.
China to set up fully private banks in 2014: CBRC [Jan 6]:
China will set up three to five fully private banks on a trial basis this year in a bid to further open up the banking sector to domestic and foreign capital, China’s banking regulator said Monday .
Private capital will be introduced to restructure current banking institutions or set up new ones bearing their own risks, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said in a work meeting.
Strict procedures and standards will be set for the pilots, with demanding set-up criteria, limited licenses, enhanced supervision and a risk handling system, according to the CBRC.
The CBRC will try to relax the threshold for foreign capital to enter China’s banking sector and ease Renminbi operation requirements, while more policies will be issued to support banking reform in the Shanghai free trade zone and financial reform pilot zone.
Tech in China 2013: High Hopes of Disrupting Domestic Financial Market excerpt #1:
The reform plan China’s central government released in November 2013 allows qualified private investors to set up banks.
Shanda, the veteran online gaming company, is the first Internet company that settled in the newly established Shanghai Free Trade Zone, planning to build Internet-based financial business and a joint bank there.
3rd payment firms enter the fray [Jan 7]:
Third-party payment companies, after a decade of fast development, are providing not only payment services but also services traditionally provided by banks, such as loans.
Among these companies, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd – China’s largest e-commerce company – has gone further than others. Alibaba plans to set up Alibaba Small and Micro Financial Services Group to consolidate its online payment and micro loan businesses, and provide financial services for consumers and small and micro enterprises – those with an annual turnover of less than 30 million yuan ( 4.8 million U.S. dollars ).
The company has made it clear that its two main business arms will be e-commerce and financial services based on its huge e-commerce data . The latter is thought to be a challenge to banks and may change the financial industry landscape due to the use of Internet technology and the huge amount of data that records users’ history and habits.
“For the past 13 years, Alibaba hasn’t thought of challenging anyone, but creating something new instead,” Alibaba’s Chairman Jack Ma said at an industry forum late March when asked whether his company aims to challenge banks.
“Banks are getting a bit nervous. But I think that getting nervous is good, and it would be strange if they aren’t,” Ma said.
“If banks weren’t nervous, China’s small and micro businesses would be nervous,” Ma added, hinting that banks fail to provide enough services to help small and micro enterprises raise funds. … Last year [ i.e. in 2013 ], the total transaction volume processed by third-party payment companies reached 3.8 trillion yuan [ $628B ], an increase of 76 percent year-on-year , according to domestic research company Analysys International.
While the biggest player in the sector, Alipay … originally acted only as an escrow between sellers and buyers , third-party payment companies are now offering a wide range of services, such as payment and settlement services, and micro loans.
Alibaba plans to launch a credit payment service for its mobile users , which gives them a certain credit limit based on their Alipay records .
Tech in China 2013: High Hopes of Disrupting Domestic Financial Market excerpt #2:
It takes only one click to transfer the balance in an Alipay account to Yuebao on either the website or the mobile app, Alipay Wallet. The mutual fund is managed by THFund , a mutual fund company Alibaba bought a controlling stake in in 2013 — THFund raised to the second biggest mutual fund company in terms of the total assets under management in 2013, up from lower than 50th one year ago , thanks to Yuebao. Users can use the money in Yuebao for online shopping anytime they like .
Yuebao’s slogan is “14 times of the return from banks”. It sounds attractive, but Yuebao doesn’t perform better than the average mutual funds. The convenience must be a key factor in attracting users. Another attractiveness is Yuebao shows returns daily .
Tech in China 2013: High Hopes of Disrupting Domestic Financial Market excerpt #3:
Apart from running a mutual fund by using user’s balance, there’s a bigger picture for Alipay.
Before long, several Chinese Internet companies launched online mutual funds and gave them similar names, such as Suning’s Yifubao , but none could be the same with Yuebao.
Alipay itself was established for Alibaba’s e-commerce marketplaces. When one user uses money in Yuebao for shopping on Alibaba’s platforms, that will be translated into transaction-based commission to Alibaba. If Yuebao is widely recognized and users would always deposit money into it, users don’t have to make payments through banks anymore . When it comes to the mutual fund itself, the more users on board and more money tansferred into it, the lower, theoretically, the risk .
Fan Zhiming, president of Alifinance for Domestic Market , said at an event last month that they’d possibly make Yuebao a default that any balance in an Alipay account would buy the mutual fund automatically .
Alifinance , the finance arm of Alibaba Group, has already disrupted China’s finance sector with services like Alipay and small loans for online retailers .
WeChat to face tougher competition in 2014 [Jan 2]
Instant messaging app WeChat has helped Chinese internet giant Tencent become the first company to secure a position in the mobile internet market, but it is expected to face greater competition from rivals, the Shanghai-based First Financial Daily reports.
One of the chief rivals is the Alibaba Group . An employee of the e-commerce business leader told the newspaper that the company was planning to target WeChat in four areas — telecom services , its own IM app Laiwang [with a free data plan] , vendors on its online platforms , and through the celebrities using the Sina Weibo microblogging service.
Sina and Alipay Launches Weibo Payment, to Fight against WeChat Payment [Jan 7]
Sina launched a payment solution, Weibo Payment , together with Alipay today. It is already available with the 4.2 version of Sina Weibo app released yesterday. Fan Zhiming , head of Alifinance for Domestic Market, made it clear that Weibo Payment is aimed at WeChat Payment when it comes to the convenience of making payments online or offline, and social shopping. He asked the audience to “forget about WeChat Payment” at the press conference today, saying Weibo Payment will perform better.
From now on all the items from Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall shared or shown as ads on Sina Weibo will have a “buy” button that will lead users to make payments directly with Alipay. … Alibaba, the parent company of Alipay, made a strategic investment in Sina Weibo last year , with not only cash but also a promise of bringing in no less than $380 million worth of advertising revenue for Sina Weibo through displaying Taobao/Tmall items in the next three years.
Airlines, hotels, and other travel agencies now have every opportunity to easily switch to the more than 800 million Chinese owners on the Alipay platform through the UATP network.
- "Alipay is designed to meet the needs of a broad and growing group of Chinese travelers, making it easy to book air tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, and other travel-related acquisitions over the Internet from major universal airlines and certified travel agencies."
- Among the US online shops that have started accepting Alipay this year, iHerb occupies 204 spaces in the online shop rating. |You can really come across it as you can, we promise, anyone can just quickly ignore these seemingly exactly how {} people forget about.
- The total number of US websites that use Alipay without opening... Combining US websites that have Alipay installed, there are less than 10 sites that have more than 100 Alipay transactions per day. That number includes Gap Inc Direct, Travelzoo Tourist Website, GoDaddy Web Domain Registrar, and PeerTransfer, which are ranked 19th and 353rd in the 2013 Top 500, respectively.
- At the same time, Alibaba Microfinance Services Group [Xinhua News Agency, November 2013] is building its promotion, which of course will undoubtedly capitalize Alipay for its expansion in the United States:
- The e-commerce giant's armed forces prepare to fight rivals in the United States
- Taobao is an online shopping platform where you can buy anything and have it delivered directly to your home. Sellers can sell new and used items on the Taobao marketplace at fixed price or through auction. The majority of items on the Taobao marketplace are new items sold at fixed price, with a very small proportion being through auction. http://www. go2taobao. com is the most trusted trade agent in the People's Republic of China. We serve a wide range of customers, from multinational corporations to individuals all over the world. go2taobao. com is the most trusted and convenient agent for companies and individuals looking to buy in China. go2taobao's services help overseas customers to safely purchase goods from Chinese online shops. Anyone who wants to shop in China http://www. taobao. com can use our services. Since most online shops are in Chinese, we help you find out what the shops offer, what the prices are, and also advise you which offers are popular and which are not. It is our duty to make our service accessible to everyone by providing secure payment methods and cheap, fast and reliable delivery. We interviewed people on the street to find out what they know about Taobao and how it helps them buy and sell. Taobao. com is China's most popular online marketplace, home to thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs. This Alizila video introduces a 76-year-old lantern maker who continues to preserve traditional crafts using modern Taobao tools. In this Alizila. com video, entrepreneur Du Qiangli explains how his online organic supermarket, Taobao, helps poor rural farmers in China's Taihang Mountains earn extra income. Read more at http://alizila. com/can-e-commerce-ease-poverty-rural-china-video.
- The Hong Kong Publishing Daily reported that China's leading power supply company Alibaba Group Holding Limited has applied for a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with the aim of raising up to $ 20 billion. The company is thought to actually arrange a promotion in October with an estimate of $ 100 billion. The key said that it would enjoy about $ 7 billion funding, targeting Alibaba, a property of Yahoo Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ). One year ago, Alibaba distributed the B2B site Alibaba. com for individuals as part of the preparation for the primary recruitment of the entire group. Taobao. com is considered to be China's leading website C2C, TMALL. co m-China's leading B2C website, Alipa y-Auripa y-China's leading provider. Alibaba is regarded as the coldest shareholder of Softbank, which owns 35 %, with 23 % of Alibaba managemen t-24, 7 %, and some private promotions and institutional investors retain 10, 3 %. , Jack Ma founder is 7 %.
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- For more information, see Mark Zuckerberg's notes on creating Facebook using a snow-white book called "Favorite" [The origins of Facebook's technology? ... Court documents describe how Mark Zuckerberg went from 0 to 100 mph in "a week or two" while studying for his Harvard exams, and founded Facebook on February 4, 2004. The idea of a Facebook for students had already been popularized at Harvard before Zuckerberg from three well-documented sources: (1) ConnectU by the Winklevoss twins[1], (2) houseSYSTEM by Aaron Greenspan[2], and (3) Harvard Computer Administration[3]. And just to be clear, as Leader Technologies (hereafter Leader) says, Zuckerberg could have gotten the idea for Facebook's system from many sources. Zuckerberg derived the idea for the platform's structure from Leader Technologies' patent documents published on October 22, 2003, and the first Leader patent published on June 24, 2004. According to the text of Zuckerberg's Leader patent, in the meantime, "Stephen Dawson Hagerty" was hired to create the "groups feature" discovered in the Leader patent disclosure.
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- In Washington, serious discussions are taking place about Larry Summers's bid for the new chairman of the Federal Reserve. Obama praises Summers, but if you look at his track record, there is nothing noble about this young man's record. Ring of Fire Mike Pantonio's main program defines the disaster of Larry Summers with economist Din Baker.
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- According to the Sunday Times, Russian entrepreneurs, Alaser Usmanov, have £ 13. 3 billion. The most luxurious citizen in the UK was Baron Westmins, ranking eighth with £ 7. 8 billion.
- Allicger Usmanov has approved the plan of the Russian authorities, and its main content is the diversification of the economy and the decrease in dependence on new technologies. This will enable a new economic reality. Before that, the businessman is convinced that Russia is likely to avoid negative roads explained in the forum. Interview with Russia 24TV channel, Ariha Usmanov, representative of Metalo Investor Share Company.
- People who know Irina Vinel say: She accomplishs everything at the highest level, is respected, honored, doctors and professors. The coach of Russia and Uzbekistan's rhythmic gymnastics representative team has become the protagonist of the new program "What a Draw".
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- USM Holdings has stakes in several of Russia's leading telecommunications operators. USM Holdings has stakes in several of Russia's leading telecommunications operators. It is ideally positioned to leverage its assets and expertise in the fast-growing market for 4G and other mobile services.
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- Neither Apple nor Samsung have responded to this call yet. Nokia is still playing it safe with a recent statement: - The original distinctive features of the Nokia Lumia 920/820 were made for the mass-produced superphone market in North America, Europe and other countries [6 September 2012].
- In the meantime, read the information below and take note of your personal, I assume, more definitive conclusions and observations:
Keep in mind that, in terms of mobile traffic, one part of the market stands out. For North America (USA and Canada), Chitika Insights, the autonomous research division of the Chitika Marketing Network, has just released its upcoming market share report on Internet usage [September 5, 2012]:According to information released by the Telecommunications Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, ... Based on data released by the Telecommunications Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ... - [Translated Chinese text data brought to the table below:]. ］
- Beijing: According to a report released by Analysis International Studies on Monday, the number of units sold in the Chinese mobile phone market in the second quarter rose to 38. 19 million.
HANGZHOU, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) — Jack Ma, founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, holds less than 7.3 percent of shares in the newly founded Alibaba Microfinance Service Group, revealed a shareholding structure report on Friday.
Forty percent of the shares are held by over 20,000 staff of the Alibaba Group and the Alibaba Microfinance Service Group, said the report.
That 40 percent, part of an incentives scheme to make “all staff shareholders,” includes Ma’s shares.
Ma also holds 7.3 percent of shares in the Alibaba Group.
The other Alibaba Microfinance shares are expected to be acquired by strategic investors in the future , according to the report.
Alibaba set up the Microfinance Service Group in March to integrate its payment and micro payment businesses.
The Alibaba Microfinance Group is not included in the portfolio of Alibaba Group’s much-discussed initial public offering.
One man who was with Jack from the beginning was Joe Tsai. Alibaba’s longtime CFO, Joe recently moved up to Vice Chairman of the group and is actively involved in the group’s recent strategic investments.
I spoke to him recently about Alibaba’sinternational expansion plans and how it’s adapting its e-commerce platform for the mobile age we now live in.
1. Up until now, most Americans think about Alibaba Group as a Chinese-focused company. What are your thoughts on international expansion for the group?
We think of international by what we can do in a cross-border context. It’s one thing to think of exporting from China, which is what we have done a lot to date. But it’s another to situate ourselves in other countries. We’re just starting to do that.
We’ve always had a cross-border B2B business.
We also have AliExpress which is growing and scaling nicely. The concept for AliExpress is to bring Chinese manufacturers online and make a global B2C marketplace. eBay has done a cross-border marketplace well. AliExpress focuses on consumer markets in developing countries. For example, we are the largest e-commerce site in Russia. We are also looking a lot at South America right now.
The next cross-border opportunity: there are millions of overseas Chinese in North America, Europe and Australia. They all want to buy from Taobao. How do we bring them back? Every overseas Chinese consumer is like 3-4 native Chinese consumers in terms of purchasing power. There’s no language problem with them coming to our website, but we have to work on payment and logistics.
And on the flipside, we want to bring hundreds of millions Chinese to shop in the United States. This is something which American merchants get excited about. With AliPay, we can enable Chinese consumers sitting in their home country to shop on, say, Saks Fifth Avenue, pay us in RMB, and we make sure merchants get the currency of their choice and handle logistics.
For us, international means starting with the cross-border opportunity. By analogy, if you look at how Facebook has grown in different countries, they started with cross-border as well. Facebook early adopters in foreign countries were all friends with people in the US. That’s how they built a critical mass of Brazilian early adopters who had friends in the US. Later on, those early adopters pulled in other Brazilians to the platform and Facebook suddenly hit critical mass around the world.
2. Recently, Alibaba made key investments in Sina Weibo, AutoNavi, and ShopRunner in the US. Tencent is rumored to be making an investment in Snapchat and has been seeing great success with WeChat. Baidu has bought 91 Wireless. The online video space is extremely hot right now in China. How does Alibaba think about taking your core e-commerce services to mobile and dealing with such threats as the proliferation of Android and messaging platforms?
E-commerce is one segment that’s perhaps the most complex when it comes to mobile. You not only have to deal with browsing and selection but logistics and payment, which implies issues of reliability and security. Mobile adoption in e-commerce is a lot slower than in other consumer Internet verticals. For example 50% of GMV on Amazon and eBay is not from mobile. It’s more like 15%-20% – even though in the social networking context, like facebook, more than 50% of the users access the service from mobile devices. Today, we are seeing high teens mobile penetration from mobile GMV in China.
We could sit here and be complacent about the rise of mobile because Taobao and Tmall have very good positions having captured large shares in mobile commerce, but we’re feeling the opposite. We’re seeing the future and we feel a strong sense of urgency when it comes to mobile.
Mobile commerce could really disrupt the traditional marketplaces in the PC environment. In mobile, there’s not a lot of screen room. E-commerce marketplaces are conducive to larger screens. People want to save time on a mobile small screen. Therefore, the whole model could be disruptive.
So, with mobile, we are shifting from a model of pulling users to pushing messages out to users. Ebay’s web site is a destination. That’s pull. In contract, mobile enables every merchant to push whatever message to a huge audience.
Alibaba Bet On Wireless Business With ALL IN Strategy, Aiming At 30% Market Share For Laiwang [TechNode, Oct 21, 2013]
Alibaba takes Laiwang , an IM tool released 4.0 version this September, as a breakthrough point for wireless business . The market share of Laiwang is expected to reach 30% in a bid to guarantee better user experience and to facilitate the expansion of other services.
Different to similar IM tools of WeChat and EasyChat, Laiwang targeted at pure friend interaction platform by introducing new features such as, burn after reading , an automatic message eliminating service, and the right to establish groups with up to 500 members . The company has launched large-scale promotion activities for Laiwang both internally and externally.
To complete the product lineup, the company will also zero in on Mobile Taobao , Ali OS as well as an imminent O2O [ Online to Offline ] service . The newly added users of Mobile Taobao exceeded 100 million in the first half of this year , while number of active users tripled that of the same period of last year. Sina Weibo account of Mobile Taobao-like Weitao recorded more than 50 million visitors.
Because of the disruptive elements of mobile , we’re not standing still. We have to move out of our comfort zone of e-commerce. We have to be more eclectic. While the Taobao app is already one of the most popular apps in China with hundreds of millions mobile users, you will see us doing our own messaging platform . We have something competitive to WeChat . It has a lot to do with e-commerce , if you make it large enough. Within the Taobao app we also have a “mini-app” that enable merchants to stay connected to their customers who subscribe to get feeds. This is a very good tool for merchants to retain their existing customers, which lowers their cost of churn and ultimately lowers their cost of having to acquire new customers to replace the churn.
YunOS 2.3 云OS (Aliyun OS 2.3) [Multicorechina.com YouTube channel, Dec 16, 2013]
SpaceAlibaba merges two cloud subsidiaries [WantChinaTimes.com, Jan 8, 20 13 ] Aliyun and net.cn [ http://www.net.cn ( 万网 – WAN network or universal net) which is known as HiChina (en.hichina.com) in English ], two cloud computing internet service companies under China’s largest internet company Alibaba Group, will be merged as a new company retaining the Aliyun name . … Net.cn’s services will remain unchanged , offering its users cloud computing and cloud emails with the continually upgrading system. The website is the largest domain name system provider and virtual server industry leader in China . …
Telecom licenses granted by MIIT [Global Times, Dec 26, 2013]
China’s top telecommunications watchdog issued licenses to the first batch of domestic mobile virtual network operators on Thursday, an attempt to further reshape the country’s telecom industry.
This move enables a total of 11 private firms – including e-commerce platform jd.com, cloud computing service provider net.cn , and Beijing-based communication service company DiXin Tong – to purchase mobile telecom services from the three State-owned telecom carriers and resell the services to consumers under their own brands, according to a statement released Thursday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
As the parent company of net.cn , e-commerce giant Alibaba said in an e-mail sent to the Global Times Thursday that the license will help the company to offer customized telecom services to online shoppers and retailers , allowing it to further extend its e-commerce ecosystem.
We’re also doing an operating system for smartphones . The core strategy is to give users an experience that connects their hardware device to content and services in the cloud . It’s an alternative to Android where an Android device is isolated from cloud-based services.
In mobile, the boundaries between e-commerce, communications, social networking, etc., become blurred.
Sina Weibo, often known as the Twitter of China, is a way for merchants who have Taobao store-fronts to stay in touch with their customers and for consumers to share what they like on Taobao, and that’s in part what drove our strategic investment in Weibo. AutoNavi is not just a provider of navigation and map services. They have one of the most popular “local services” apps in China that enable users to find restaurants and entertainment based on their locations. Local services will play a big role in e-commerce in the future.
We will continue to find all kinds of new ways to reach our users in ways that best suit this new mobile environment we operate in.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited announced in March that it will spread its own cloud computing proposition to overseas markets in an attempt to take public cloud share from rivals such as Amazon. com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
Alibaba's cloud computing arm, Alibaba Cloud, has devised a data processing center outside China to offer cloud computing propositions to local companies and overseas operations of Chinese companies, the company announced on Tuesday.
Creating a platform for managing and storing data on the cloud, Aliyun, as its South American peer Amazon, announced the launch of such a service in China, becoming the first Chinese company to reach the foreign sector of the public cloud after a certain number of days.
"After five years of development and commercialization for three years, Alasun has been able to provide customers with stable services.
Recently, the service has received the world's first GOLD certification on cloud computing security from an Englis h-based university, a company that specializes in business standardization and substantial reliability.
Zhang has declined to call the first appointment of Aliyu n-Release to the International Bazar. However, he presented two options: Southeast Asia, the United States (Amazon, National Land or Russian business.
As a joint champion of cloud computing in Japan, Ariyun proposes cloud computing to 1000 Chinese websites, electric trade, banks and game manufacturers.
Of the 188 million applications purchased on online sales on November 11, thre e-quarters were processed by the Alibaba cloud computing system.
Alibaba alternately introduces Russian cloud computing companies. In September, Alibaba bought individual cloud savings KANBOX maintenance.
In August, China Soft Kokusai Kokusai Union announced a decision on a strategic agreement with Ariyun, and was a local government to lose Zhejiang Province.
Aliyun has the ability to contact the district communication-operator to avoid the legal restrictions in the Zhang district.
7. Eventually, in 2014, with a hig h-profit organic lift, Alibaba extended $ 8 billion loans until the end of 2014 and earned more time for IPO: Information providers [in 2013. December 11].
Basically, Alipay has not actually participated in the Alibaba Group's IPO, and as a result, receiving funds from strategic merchants (60 %) to grow the auxiliary capital controlled by Jack MA. It is important.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Wednesday it is seeking to extend the draw-down period of an $8 billion loan from January next year, a move people familiar with the e-commerce company’s plans said would buy it more time to launch an IPO.
The original expiry date of the draw-down period on the loan was January 30 of next year, according to the deal terms. Alibaba wants to extend that to December 31, 2014, sources familiar with the discussions said.
“ We have plenty of cash on the balance sheet and there is no need to draw down at this time , so we are extending the availability of funds to maintain flexibility,” the company said, without specifying a new date.
Alibaba said the funds will be used for corporate purposes. It has already used $5 billion from the loan facility to refinance its debt.
The $8 billion loan is a key part of Alibaba’s IPO plan, and the extension to the end of next year signals that the public float is remains a long way off.
China’s biggest e-commerce firm has struggled to reach an agreement with Hong Kong regulators over a partnership structure it hopes to use as part of an initial public offering (IPO), a deal that expected to be worth around $15 billion and which may take place next year.
Public comments by its founder Jack Ma and a statement from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in recent months, however, have raised the possibility of a Hong Kong listing.
The company has yet to outline a date or venue for the IPO. Under an agreement with its second biggest shareholder Yahoo Inc., Alibaba has incentives to complete an IPO before December 2015. [ Note that Yahoo! Inc. is required to sell its 208mn shares of Alibaba concurrent with the IPO. ]
All 22 lenders involved with the loan must agree to the extension.
The banks have until December 20 to respond to the extension request, and those responding in favor before Friday will get an “early bird” fee of $50,000 from the company if the move succeeds.
The best person of the Alibaba Group's Chairman of the Board of Directors may be involved in the Jack MA concert at the GKUST GIST ceremony [Jim Ericsson YouTube, November 8, 2013].
On November 8, 2013, Jack Mer, the founder and chairman of the Alibaba Group, who gives a speech at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Academy for graduates in FY2013.
Details about Jack Ma and his strategic moves for the U.S. market in 2013
His loyalty to society's duties is an absolute obligatory small one that keeps his life and moving, which is the last share of Jack Ma's speech as Alibaba's highest executive officer. [Tech in Asia, 13 May 2013]:
In the future, you will be curious, for example, the surrounding formation and security services. Let's go beyond work and improve China together. Don't tell the water, the sky is-blue, food-not smaller. Please do everything! (Jack Mer wearing a knee in front of the audience).
{space}
Financial Times, A Man of the Year: Jack Ma [December 12, 2013]:
universe
Alibaba Group's CEO Jack Ma has retired on May 10. The Alibaba Group is one of the most prestigious companies in China, and Maun Survation (Jack Ma) is one of the symbolic people of the Chinese online, electronic business, and the great technology industry. The Aris o-cho group operates a Taobao, one of the huge online shopping platforms in China. To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Taobao Network, Aligroe celebrated it in Hangzhou, China for 40, 000 people. Alibaba's Maun CEO left a personal event, with Ali, Alibaba, and Alibaba were blessed young people ... Tofusquare translated his speech.
On May 10, Jack Ma stepped down as managing director of Alibaba, a company he built from scratch in his hometown of Hangzhou, and which is now one of the world's leading giants. The next day, on May 11, he already launched his latest business, China Recovery Support Centered on Wednesdays, and became chairman of the Chinese program "The Nature Conservance".
{space}
Jack MA focuses on the huge strategic role of Alibaba Group's chairman of the board of directors during the period, you should look at Alibaba's intentions on IPO in the future [YouTube - Channel BizasiaAmerica, July 14, 2013].
The preparations for an IPO are undoubtedly linked to the intentions of international expansion. The United States is already considered that space, and it is possible to see there:
A strategy to support sellers focused on Internet commerce and development technology
{Space}
A little while ago, three South American companies announced that they were receiving funding from Alibaba. The three companies are Fanatics, a leading online renotarizer of officially licensed sports goods, ShopRunner, a platform for large retailers that offers buyers a two-year charity, and Quixey, a leading manufacturer of search technology that allows users to search for content in mobile applications.
SAN FRANCISCO – Oct. 22, 2013 – Alibaba Group announced that it has established a U.S.-based investment organization that will look to back entrepreneurial teams working on innovative platforms, products and ideas with a focus on Internet commerce and emerging technologies.
Michael Zeisser , who joined Alibaba after leading Liberty Media Corp.’s strategies in digital media and Internet commerce for nearly a decade , heads the team. Zeisser created and oversaw Liberty Media’s eCommerce Group, a roll-up of specialty online retail companies where he worked closely with entrepreneurs and senior executives in growing the group’s annual revenues to $1.5 billion. Prior to Liberty Media, Zeisser was a partner in the Media and Private Equity practices of McKinsey & Co . Zeisser will assume the role of Chairman of US Investments for Alibaba Group.
“Alibaba is run by entrepreneurs, and we believe in supporting entrepreneurs with great vision and a strong sense of mission for their companies,” said Joe Tsai , Executive Vice Chairman of Alibaba and head of Alibaba’s strategic investments . “We are extremely excited to have someone of Michael’s caliber and experience to lead our investment efforts in the U.S. The team has been active over the past several months and we have already completed a few investments in the U.S. by partnering with terrific entrepreneurial teams .”
Fanatics is the world's leading online retailer of officially licensed sports equipment. The company adds 800 workspaces each season.
Other members of Alibaba’s U.S. investment team include Peter Stern, a senior banker from the technology, media and telecoms M&A team at Credit Suisse in New York who advised Alibaba on the landmark $7.6 billion stock repurchase from Yahoo in 2012; and Danielle Wong, a Stanford undergraduate who recently received her MBA from the Yale School of Management. The team will be based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
About Alibaba Group :
Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere . Since it was founded in 1999, the China-based Alibaba Group has developed leading businesses in consumer e-commerce, online payment, business-to-business marketplaces and cloud computing. Alibaba Group operates Taobao Marketplace (www.taobao.com), China’s most popular online shopping destination; Tmall.com (www.tmall.com), China’s leading online platform for merchants offering quality, brand-name goods to consumers; Juhuasuan (www.juhuasuan.com), a group shopping platform; eTao (www.etao.com), a comprehensive shopping search engine; Alibaba.com (www.alibaba.com) and 1688.com (www.1688.com), leading business-to-business marketplaces for small businesses engaged in international trade and domestic China trade, respectively; and Alibaba Cloud Computing (www. aliyun .com), a developer of platforms for cloud computing and data management. Alipay (www.alipay.com), the most widely-used online payment service by consumers and merchants in China, is an affiliate of Alibaba Group.
June 20, 2012 (Bloomberg) - ShopRunner President and CEO Michael Golden, who is responsible for the company's business strategy and proposition for retailers, spoke with Corey Johnson on Bloomberg's "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg) For more information on ShopRunner, please visit the website: //shoprunner. com.
One online retailer has quietly grown into one of America’s largest Web merchants by carving out a lucrative niche: sports apparel.
The company, Fanatics Inc ., this week raised $170 million in a new funding round . That more than doubles the retailer’s valuation to $3.1 billion from just a year ago, according to a person familiar with the deal’s terms.
In an interview, Michael Rubin, chief executive of Fanatics’ parent company Kynetic LLC, said the retailer expects to pull in $1 billion in revenue this year, up from $800 million last year, through a focus on sales—primarily online—of officially licensed jerseys, mugs, jackets and other such merchandise. He said the company is profitable, without providing specifics, and he has no plans to take it public. … The new funding comes from Singapore state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd ., and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ., said Mr. Rubin. Temasek gains a seat on the Jacksonville, Fla., company’s board, he said.
A spokesman for Temasek confirmed the investment, but declined to discuss specifics. An Alibaba representative declined comment.
Mr. Rubin said the money would , among other things, help Fanatic s increase its $500 million inventory , fund an overseas expansion and bolster its distribution, including a planned new warehouse in the Western U.S. “We think there’s huge potential in sports apparel and for Fanatics to grow,” said Mr. Rubin. “We’ll be looking at Western Europe and Asia as places to move into.”
Quixey is one of the best application search and discovery spaces on Android. Download for free on Google Play here: http://bit. ly/1cvpc74 For more information about the product, visit http://www. quixey. com/androidApp.
November 13, 2013 – JACKSONVILLE, FL – Fanatics, Inc. announces the launch of its first-ever mobile app for iPhone and Android devices. The leading online retailer of officially licensed sports merchandise is continuing to ensure sports fans receive the best possible shopping experience, including easier access to the largest assortment of team gear on smartphones.
The new Fanatics app provides sports fans worldwide with mobile access to more than 250,000 products from over 700 teams. Users have the ability to browse through merchandise, save their favorite teams and find the best quality gear from all major leagues, including the NFL, NCAA, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, PGA and UFC. App users also have access to the free Fanatics REWARDS program, which offers free 3-day shipping on everything plus 5% Fan Cash™ on orders over $50 and 10% Fan Cash™ on orders over $100.
“Launching the Fanatics mobile app is an exciting time for our company as we continue to expand our reach to sports fans,” said David Katz, SVP and GM of Mobile for Fanatics. “With Fanatics growing so quickly and sports over-indexing on mobile, it was crucial that we get a great, user-friendly commerce app for fan gear out to our users. And this is just the start since location information and real-time data will allow us to build on this start and create even better experiences for passionate fans.”
About Fanatics
Fanatics is a leading online retailer of officially licensed sports merchandise and provides the ultimate shopping experience to sports fans. As a Top 50 Internet Retailer Company, Fanatics comprises the broadest online assortment offering hundreds of thousands of officially licensed items via its Fanatics (www.fanatics.com) and FansEdge (www.fansedge.com) brands. In addition, the company powers the e-commerce sites of all major professional sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, PGA), major media brands (NBC Sports, CBS Sports, FOX Sports) and e -stores for over 200 collegiate and professional team properties .
Vice President of Technology Ronner Shapira speaks about the future of applications and the active Internet at the company's Los Altos headquarters on February 27, 2013.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has led a $206 million investment in a rival to Amazon.com Inc., AMZN +1.38% one of its biggest U.S. moves as the Chinese e-commerce giant considers an initial public offering here.
Alibaba invested in ShopRunner Inc., which offers unlimited two-day shipping from retailers including Toys “R” Us Inc. and RadioShack Corp. RSH -2.62% for a $79 annual fee . American Express Co. AXP +1.27% has also taken a small stake in ShopRunner.
The deal values ShopRunner at about $600 million , said a person familiar with the matter, and completes a funding round in which Alibaba previously chipped in about $70 million . It isn’t clear exactly how much Alibaba invested, but it did put in most of the funding , this person said. As part of the deal, eBay Inc. EBAY +1.58% sold its prior 30% holding in ShopRunner for a profit , the person said. … Alibaba has had designs on the U.S. for years. It operates two U.S.-facing websites , traditional online marketplace Aliexpress.com and Alibaba.com, a business-to-business sales site . In 2010, it struck a deal to sell goods through eBay’s marketplace. In June, Alibaba took a minority stake in Fanatics Inc ., also controlled by ShopRunner-parent Kynetic LLC, as part of $170 million funding round . … “The U.S. market in the long run is very interesting to us,” said Joe Tsai, Alibaba’s executive vice chairman and co-founder in an interview. “ Coming into this market is about learning about American consumers and how the market operates .” Mr. Tsai said he expects ShopRunner to be competitive with Amazon over time . One analyst says that won’t be easy. … ShopRunner is headed by Scott Thompson, the former PayPal president who resigned as Yahoo’s chief executive last year after a flap over a flawed biography in a company regulatory filing.
Mr. Thompson, who joined ShopRunner in July, said the cash injection will help the company grow more quickly, including adding new retailers. “We’re staking out a place in mobile, hiring more engineers that will allow us to evolve our business,” Mr. Thompson said. He said the company is also hiring additional salespeople.
Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. plans to join as soon as this month, said John Koryl, a division president. “Our customer wants to know she’ll get her item in two days,” he said. “This is a good experiment to see how it goes.”
The ShopRunner funding round marks another milestone for Kynetic CEO Michael Rubin , who sold e-commerce consultancy GSI Commerce to eBay in March 2011 for $2.4 billion ; the unit is now called eBay Enterprise . The June round in which Alibaba participated valued Kynetic at $3 billion .
ShopRunner takes a 2% to 5% cut of goods purchased from merchants’ websites by members of the loyalty program , Mr. Thompson said. And it is one of few alternatives for merchants hoping to branch out into e-commerce while not relying too heavily on Amazon . The company doesn’t disclose revenue or profitability.
Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership with American Express giving many U.S. cardholders free memberships, a potential pool of tens of millions.
From Fnno.com, this is the Financial News Network. While a lot of attention has been paid to Marissa Mayer being named the new CEO of Yahoo, it seems her predecessor has a new job as well. Scott Thompson, the previous CEO of Yahoo has been named the new CEO of ShopRunner .
ShopRunner is a subscription service that partners with over 60 online retailers . Customers pay a monthly fee, and are then able to reap the benefits of exclusive deals with certain retailers, and receive free shipping . Thompson was previously a board member for the company, as early as when he was the president of PayPal.
Thompson’s previous position at Yahoo lasted only four months after which he was forced to depart amid allegations he lied about his qualifications. ShopRunner’s current CEO, Mike Golden, will remain with the company as president . For more coverage and analysis of the business world follow us on Twitter @FNNOnline or check out our website at fnno.com
He also talks about the functional web in this transcript of the Quixey blog on March 7, 2013.
Today we’re super excited to announce the launch of our first direct to consumer product , now available for free on Android — download it from Google Play right here and read about it on the product page!
Until now, most app search has been based on titles and keywords, which requires users to know the name of an app before they can search for it. With Quixey, all you have to do is describe what you want to do in natural language . For example, “tune my guitar” or “identify wines.”
Beyond that , we’ve included a bunch of fun and engaging new features . Whether you know what kind of app you want, or just have a minute to find something new, there’s something for everyone. Here’s what Quixey on Android offers:
Search – App search that works. You don’t need to know an app’s name to get great results. Search for apps by describing what you want to do and we’ll find apps to help.
Trending – Check out the latest and greatest apps . No matter who you are – parent, student, teacher, traveler, athlete, gamer, musician – we have the top trending apps picked for you.
Browse – Browse through categories and subcategories . Take our browse wheel for a spin to find the perfect app for you (not available on Gingerbread OS).
Sample – Curious what types of apps are out there? Check out our sample queries to see what other people are searching for.
Quixey is in beta and we’re committed to building an amazing product that you love. Submit your feedback from within the app (in the information section) or send an email to [email protected]. Thanks and have fun finding great new apps!
Joe Tsai, Executive Vice President of Alibaba, is also happy to work with us. According to him, "Innovation is the cornerstone of Alibaba's corporate culture, and supporting entrepreneurs developing promising technologies is something we love to do. Quixy has a great vision for the future and a great team to make it a reality."
Alipay's Yu Yi Bao, a Chinese online payment platform, is quickly gaining popularity among online shops and buyers.
Today we’re thrilled to announce we’ve officially closed our latest round of funding! Series C is led by Alibaba Group, with new investor GGV Capital, and participation from existing investors Atlantic Bridge, Innovation Endeavors, Translink Capital, US Venture Partners, and WI Harper.
“Next year, 95% of the world’s population will have mobile access, and by 2016 people will use 1.5 billion smart mobile devices. Quixey is at the epicenter of this brave new world, and this investment will ensure that we continue to expand globally,” said Tomer Kagan, Quixey CEO and Co-Founder. “Apps have moved from novelty to a major factor in purchasing decisions for consumers and we’ve only just started to scratch the surface of what they can do.”
We’re very excited to be working with a company on the level of Alibaba, whose mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. Since its inception, it has developed leading businesses in consumer e-commerce, online payment, business-to-business marketplaces and cloud computing, reaching Internet users in more than 240 countries and regions.
Li Jingmin, Vice President of Alipay International, appeared on CCTV to talk about Alipay's potential for global expansion.
The additional $50 million, which brings our funding total to $74.2 million , will be used to further develop our market leading Functional Search™ technology , which currently allows users to find apps by describing what they want to do . With the flexibility to bolster our already strong roster of talented employees, we’ll now be able to focus on going deeper and deeper into apps , bringing users the information and functionality they want quicker than ever before.
“Building user-centric products is what Quixey is about. We should be the starting point for every mobile device ,” said Guru Gowrappan, EVP, Product and Marketing at Quixey. “We give users a more natural way to search for the things that makes their lives easier. That’s the core of our Functional Search™ technology and the core of the company.”
Ever since launching in 2011, we’ve been working hard to bring the build the best possible product for our users. This is a huge benchmark for us as it allows us to make our vision for the future of apps and the web a reality much faster than originally possible. If you have any questions about the funding round, please send us a note at [email protected]. Look out for more big announcements in the coming months!
Mark Niu talks about how Alipay is working with the US company UATP to facilitate ticket and hotel bookings over the internet in China. Subscribe to BizasiaAmerica: http://goo. gl/fmkabj, Follow CCTV America: Twitter: http://bit. ly/15oqhsy Facebook: http://on. fb. me/172VKNE
Three hundred million Chinese consumers shop online, and most of them have accounts with Alipay, the PayPal-like online payment service owned by Alibaba Group Ltd., operator of China’s top online marketplaces. In a move that could make it easier for Chinese shoppers to buy on U.S. e-commerce sites, Alipay is now promoting itself as a payment option for U.S. e-retailers .
Among the U.S. online retailers that’s begun accepting Alipay this year is iHerb Inc ., No. 204 in the Internet Retailer. In the first six months of accepting the Chinese payment method, iHerb’s sales on the cn.iHerb.com subdomain of its web site aimed at Chinese consumers increased 244.52% compared with the prior six-month period and 684.15% compared with the same period a year earlier, says John McCarthy, director of marketing at iHerb.
Leading Alipay’s international expansion is Jingming Li , whose title is chief architect and acting president of the newly formed Alibaba International Financial Service Unit . Based at Alibaba’s U.S. headquarters in Santa Clara, CA, Li sees a big opportunity in enabling Chinese shoppers to pay with a method that they use widely in China, not only to shop online but also to pay utility and other bills offline in China.
Li notes that China’s increasingly affluent middle- and upper-class consumers made 83 million trips abroad last year [ in 20 12 ] and spent $100 billion while traveling . In addition, he says, they spent 20 billion yuan ( $3.3 billion ) buying directly from e-commerce sites outside of China . They’re especially interested in buying baby products, apparel and luxury goods.
They would buy more , Alibaba reasons, if they could pay with the Alipay accounts they use in China. “That’s where our international focus will be , helping our members continue to use their Alipay accounts outside of China,” he says.
Without disclosing the total number of U.S. sites accepting Alipay, Li says there are about 10 web sites in the U.S. that already are generating more than 100 Alipay transactions per day . They include the e-commerce sites of retailers Gap Inc. Direct , No. 19 in the 2013 Top 500 , and Forever 21 , No. 353 ; travel site Travelzoo ; web domain registrar GoDaddy and peerTransfer , which handles tuition payments for international students.
International web sites can boost sales by accepting Alipay because many Chinese consumers don’t have credit cards from Western brands like Visa and MasterCard , Li says. Plus, he says, “They are in the habit of using Alipay. If a merchant is willing to use Alipay as a form of payment it gives a lot more trust and confidence to the consumer who may be purchasing an airline ticket from a foreign carrier for the first time.”
Li would not disclose Alipay’s fees , but says they are lower than the fees charged by major credit card brands like MasterCard and Visa . Chinese consumers typically fund their Alipay accounts from their bank accounts, which eliminates much of the risk that credit card issuers take on when they extend credit to cardholders. McCarthy of iHerb says the fees he pays are comparable to what he pays for other payment methods, and that he views the fees as “attractive.”
The attention of British Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson to Jack Ma is illustrated in a recent video report about Alibaba being British [YouTub e-channel BizasiaAmerica, 26 December 2013]:
The online payment affiliate of China’s biggest e-commerce company Alibaba Group Ltd will be restructured to attract new strategic investors, in a move that will reduce the shareholding of Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma in the affiliate.
Zhejiang Alibaba E-Commerce Co Ltd will be restructured as a new company in which 60 percent of its shares will be offered to new strategic investors , Lucy Peng, head of the restructured entity, said in a letter published on its official Weibo microblog account on Friday.
Ma will see his shareholding reduced from 80 percent to about 7 percent in the new company, or no greater than his shareholding in Alibaba Group , according to the letter.
The restructured company , to be known as Alibaba Small and Micro Financial Services Group , will hold Zhejiang Alibaba’s 100 percent stake in unit Alipay , as well as its shareholding in Alibaba’s micro- finance unit, Zhongan Insurance , and Tianhong Asset Management Co .
Alipay is China’s biggest third-party payment platform, providing payment solutions to 460,000 merchants, and with 800 million registered accounts.
The remaining 40 percent in the new company will be offered to nearly 24,000 employees at Alibaba Group and Zhejiang Alibaba , said Peng, former chief executive of Alipay. That includes the share held by Ma.
The announcement on Friday will have no impact on existing agreements with Alibaba and the group’s shareholders SoftBank Corp and Yahoo! Inc, Alibaba spokesman John Spelich said.
In 2011, Ma sparked a public dispute with Alibaba Group’s biggest outside investors when he separated Alipay from Alibaba. Ma said at the time that new Chinese government regulations on third-party payment services required the changes.
The companies later settled, in a deal that guaranteed Alibaba 49.9 percent of Alipay’s earnings prior to an initial public offering, and as much as $6 billion if Alipay sells shares to the public.
“Today’s announcement underscores that employees of both Alibaba Group Holdings and Alibaba Small and Micro Financial Services Group are being incentivized to work hard to achieve success for the company,” Spelich said.
Alibaba Group, through Alipay, is introducing a variety of financial services to complement its e-commerce businesses. Besides Alipay, which provides users with an online payment system, the Hangzhou-based company has also started fund and insurance sales, as well as small loan finance.
In June, Alipay launched Yu E Bao , a fund management platform , allowing Alibaba customers to directly invest cash from their Alipay account into a money market fund managed by Tianhong Asset Management Co .
The Zenglibao fund is the most successful fundraising by any mutual fund in China this year, with managed assets reaching 55.7 billion yuan ( $9.14 billion ) at the end of September.
Alibaba also received approval this week from China’s securities regulators to act as a third party for the online sale of fund products on its Amazon-like Taobao .
Richard Bestick dispatches from London where the British brand will continue on China's T-mall.
Airline and Travel Payment Summit, Chicago, – November 5, 2013 – UATP announced today that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Alipay, China’s leading third-party online payment solution, to enable the U.S. travel industry to offer Chinese consumers a convenient and trusted way to book and pay for overseas travel.
With minimal change to their existing backend systems, airlines, hotels and other travel enterprises can now easily connect to the more than 800 million Chinese account holders on the Alipay platform via the UATP Network . These consumers are extremely comfortable with online purchasing and enthusiastic about high-quality international products and overseas travel.
China’s increasingly affluent middle- and upper-class consumers made 83 million outbound trips in 2012. China has been the world’s fastest-growing tourism source market for the past decade and it is now also the world’s top tourism spender. Chinese travelers spent a record US$102 billion in 2012 to surpass the U.S. and Germany , both with spending close to $84 billion .
“After years as the most widely used online payment platform in China, Alipay is thrilled to join forces with UATP in this milestone collaboration. We are excited to help U.S. businesses satisfy eager Chinese consumers,” said Jingming Li , vice president and chief architect of Alipay International. “Alipay is dedicated to meeting the needs of China’s vast and growing pool of keen overseas travelers by making it easier for them to pay for air tickets, book hotels, rent cars and make other travel-related purchases online from the world’s leading airlines and accredited travel agencies.”
“We look forward to partnering with Alipay and working with them in this mutually beneficial opportunity,” said Ralph Kaiser, president and CEO, UATP. “We see further growth in outbound travel as inevitable for China. Matching the strength of the UATP Network with Alipay’s proven success, we are confident that we can bring the best that both companies have to offer to this booming market.”
Launched in 2004, Alipay is a cross-border payment solution that provides an easy and secure platform to make and receive payment over the Internet. Alipay partners with more than 180 financial institutions and supports transactions in 15 foreign currencies. It had more than 800 million registered accounts as of December 2012.
UATP is a comprehensive payment solution that airlines offer to reduce the high cost of credit card use and provide vital data for accurate travel management. UATP’s corporate program and data tools, DataStream and DataMine, supply Level III Data for all air and rail travel, and folio-level data for hotel stays.
For more information, visit http://uatp.com and http://global.alipay.com
Taobao story in presenting Taobao-agent for buyers outside China, from classic taobao. com to tmall. com-oriented brand, then the players themselves: even in remote rural areas, transform into the most successful, most successful, recognizable brand Taobao-activity is the blood for tmall. com courier, and at least the buyers themselves, as well as local small and medium-sized enterprises, become global.
{space}The value of Taobao.com and TMall.com in China, as well as outside
How to buy on Taobao? Best Taobao Agent [YouTube Channel Go2taobao. com, April 25, 2013].
Disclaimer : I have no association either with Alibaba Group or with Go2Taobao/BuyWithAgents. The sole purpose of this post is to provide an illustrative follow-up to The Upcoming Mobile Internet Superpower [Aug 13, 2013], Assesment of the Xiaomi phenomenon before the global storm is starting on Sept 5 [Aug 30, 2013], and Opinion Leaders and Lead Opinions: Reflections on Steven Sinofsky’s “Era of Continuous Productivity” vision [Sept 1, 2013] posts on my ‘Experiencing the Cloud’ trend-tracking blog.
Managing director Louise Kao says. COM's management director Louise Kao tells how he succeeded in using the Alibabao. com and Tmall. com platforms. 7GEGE. com, which has been developing business since 2009, advises how to build online business in the fashion field.
The JOYME Group is composed of multiple manufacturers that specialize in wooden furniture in Kuromo Riang Province, northeastern China. Joyim has been producing furniture for IKEA for many years. However, to increase production costs and reduce profits, JOYME has changed its business strategy and launched its own retail brand from OEM production for IKEA. See how you utilized tmall. com and succeeded in the transition.
Learn about the lives of Taobao's courier and selfless greeds working in rural areas and urban areas. They are the foundation of Chinese e-commerce.
Being a mother is lif e-threatening, and delivering milk to your baby is just the beginning. See how more than 2 million mothers purchased breastfeeding goods in Taobao.
How did DS Global (DS 글) President Leehiko have succeeded in using the site of Alibaba Dotcom in Korea to succeed. From the beginning, we have understood that the Internet will help you enter new markets around the world. He is now trading with 70 countries, including Turkey, the United States, Spain, South Africa, Brazil, and Russia.
$ 100 million
On August 30, 2013, Bain and Amplifier Brief Company (based on the survey).
This video was released on the Chinese e-commerce site "Go2taobao. com".
Go2taobao. com = & amp; amp; gt; buywithagents. Com
Registry: Bartek Sawczyn Nakayama XI LU 669 54 to 608 CN Domain Name: BUYWITHAGENTS. COM Management Contact: Home. Place Rodla 9 SZCZECIN. 9143 25555 SECHNICAL Location RODLA 9 Suchetin, NA 70-419 PL +48. 914325555 Fax: +48. 9143255599 Registered Service Supplier: Home. PL S. A., +48. 914325555 +48. 91432599 (FAX) htp: //home. pl, DNS/DNS/Server change and general domain support problem. Record recorder: The last update date of TUCOWS, Inc. record is 15-auG-AUG H-2013. The recording period is until August 14, 2014. The record was created for 14-aug-aug h-2013.
At the 2013 China Internet Conference in Beijing, you felt like you had been teleported into a bazaar.
“Internet-related consumption of information products and services together with e-commerce are becoming the two biggest drivers of China’s economic growth and restructuring,” said Liang Chunxiao, vice president of the country’s top online trading platform Alibaba Group .
He predicted that online retail revenues would account for more than 16 percent of China’s total social sales in 2020 when the aggregated e-commerce volume exceeds 28.8 trillion yuan ( 4.7 trillion dollars ).
“E-commerce will boost related sectors such as logistics and raw materials, and help release the consumption potential in many remote areas,” Liang added.
China’s Internet economy will take up 6.9 percent of its GDP in 2016, up from 5.5 percent seen in 2010, according to a research report by the Boston Consulting Group last year.
Alibaba has created 3 million direct jobs and over 100 {space} [ million ] indirect ones , and the number will keep growing, according to Liang.
Another big online retailer Jingdong hired more than 30,000 delivery men , most of whom are migrant workers, said vice president Zhao Guoqing.
Domain: go2taobao. com RSP: Michau Enterprises Limited URL: http://www. aftermarket. pl Owner-contact： P-gqp606 OPTER-OPERATIONS: LAUTUMSTUDIO Owner-name: Grzegorz Owner-name： Pietrzak Owner-street: Mickuewicza 36a Owner-GOROD: Wroclaw Owner-Zip: 58-619 Owner-page： PL Owner-phone: +48. 88918222 Owner-email Admin-contact P-GQP606 Admin-organisation： LAUTUMSTUDIO Admin-name: Greasegor Z Admin-name: Pietrzak admin-street: Mickiewicza 36A Admin-City: Wroclaw Admin-Zip: 58-619 Admin-country: PL Admin-phone: +48. 889188222 Admin-email: Tech-Contact: P-GQP606 Tech-Tech-Organizati at: LAutumStudio Tech-Fname: Grzegorz Tech-lname Pietrzak Tech-Street: MickueWicza 36a Die. Megapolis: Wrocław Die. Postal code: 58-619 Die. State: Technical phone number: +48. 889 18222 tech-email: billing-contact: p-gqp606 Billing-organisation: lautumstudio Billing-fname: Billing Name: Grzegorz Billing Address: Mickiewicza 36a Billing City: WROCLAW Billing Postal Code: 58-619 Billing Country: PLACTRY: PLOBRICTE: PLACTRY: PLACTRY: PLACTRY: PLACTRY: PLOBE-COLTRY. Billing-phone: +48. 8891882224 Billing-email: nameServer: ns1. webio. pl nameServer: ns2. webio. pl
The year 2013 will be remembered as the one in which China surpassed the US as the world’s largest digital retail market. Last year, Chinese e-commerce shoppers spent RMB 1.3 trillion [ $212 billion ] online, a sum that has grown more than 70% annually since 2009 and is expected to continue on its amazing trajectory, reaching RMB 3.3 trillion [ $490 billion ] by 2015 (see Figure 1). Digital retailing has furiously transformed shopping and purchasing habits, opening up vast opportunities for retailers and brands that pay attention to the nuances of massively changing consumer behavior.
To better understand how Chinese consumers shop and purchase online—and what implications that has for retailers and brands— Bain & Company surveyed more than 1,300 online shoppers across all city tiers, incomes, ages and education levels . A follow-up to our initial 2012 China e-commerce report, it gave us the opportunity to dig deeper into the dramatic growth numbers to understand how the world of online retailing has changed their behavior (see Figure 2). We found Chinese shoppers have been more willing than shoppers in other markets to use their smartphones to make purchases, are comfortable with third-party payments and online banking, and are happy to rely on third parties for deliveries —as opposed to picking up products in stores. Perhaps most important for the years to come is that we learned that digital retailing now is the major influence on their actual purchasing decisions .
As it explodes, China’s digital retail market also is making a dramatic shift from consumer-to-consumer (C2C) sites like Taobao —which introduced shoppers to online buying— to business-to-consumer (B2C) sites like Tmall , which surveyed shoppers tell us they trust more than consumer sites . Between 2009 and 2012, the compounded annual growth rate for B2C platforms was 160%, and it’s expected to continue to grow 53% a year through 2015. By comparison, Taobao, which represents the vast majority of the C2C market, grew by a compounded annual rate of around 65% in the years 2009 to 2012.
The Tmall phenomenon
As retailers and brands frame their strategies, they can’ t minimize the importance of Tmall, the dominant site where the majority of China’s B2C purchases take place. Tmall generated revenues of RMB 180 billion [ $29.4 billion ] in 2012 , and the site has deftly shaped online retailing in China. Consider its iconic 11.11 digital retail event, in which shoppers are offered up to 50% discounts on most products. The single 24-hour period in November delivered fully 7% of Tmall’ s annual revenues in 2012, according to company reports. By the end of the day 213 million unique visitors had logged on, the company reported, accounting for 106 million transactions.
A presence on Tmall is critical for any merchant trying to establish a foothold with China’s online shoppers . Given its scale and ability to deliver enormous traffic, Tmall serves as a good entry option for brick-and-mortar retailers or brands that want to get shoppers comfortable with the experience of buying online. Then retailers can focus on convincing shoppers to make purchases on their own sites. Trouble is, our survey found that consumers often confuse flagship stores on Tmall with retailers’ own e-commerce sites. The challenge is to clearly differentiate the retailer’s e-store from its Tmall offering .
Ultimately, Tmall helps everybody grow, and fast. Its 11-11 digital holiday creates a halo effect that makes those 24 hours an exciting time for all online retailers in China.
The potential is huge for B2C sites to win away shoppers from C2C sites. Based on our survey, 96% of C2C revenues come from shoppers buying new—not second-hand—products like those sold on B2C sites. Tmall , probably the only profitable B2C e-store , is poised to gain from this trend. Its sister company, C2C giant Taobao, feeds traffic to Tmall without a fee .
These online-only pure plays lead the market over omnichannel retailers , those with both a physical and online presence. The pure player world supports three major business models. On Pure Platforms , such as Tmall and Taobao , vendors operate their e-store and own the products. These sites have no in-house logistics, relying on third-party players to fulfill orders. However, they integrate delivery into their sites, making it easy for shoppers. Taobao established a common platform that allows its third-party logistics partners to track the route and delivery status of orders. An Open Platform is a variation of this model. In sites like Jingdong (formerly 360buy), vendors own the products but only partially operate the e-store, although the platform will operate an e-store for a vendor for a service charge. While the Open Platform model has in-house logistics capabilities, an e-store may opt to use a third party and pay a service fee. Meanwhile, B2C pure players like 51buy operate the e-store, fully owning the products and using in-house logistics, except in remote regions.
Alibaba, the world’s biggest business to business (B2B) online platform, is probably the one facing the biggest challenge. It’s popular customer to customer (C2C) online marketplace Taobao receives more than 20 million orders a day (70% of China’s deliveries) . The parcels are delivered by third-party providers that have to deal with China’s underdeveloped delivery infrastructure. This is a common problem the whole industry is facing, prompting other e-commerce players like Jingdong Mall (JD.com which was formerly known as 360buy.com), Suning and VANCL to invest in self-owned and managed logistics systems to ensure they are in control of the whole process .
In contrast, Alibaba is not interested in owning its delivery network and since 2011 it has been lobbying for what it sees as a “logistics revolution”.
In May this year , it announced the formation of a new company, Cainiao Network Technology . With Alibaba’s former CEO, Jack Ma, as the Chairman, Cainiao is an alliance of logistics companies, couriers and e-commerce companies such as Yintai Group , Alibaba Group and SF-Express , that are willing to collectively work for the development of a nationwide IT logistics platform . An Alibaba group spokesperson told CKGSB Knowledge that the company is “spearheading the project in cooperation with industry partners with a common goal of enhancing the existing logistics network, whether it be on the IT or physical delivery and warehousing levels”. With a planned initial investment of $16.3 billion , the consortium marks a critical step in Alibaba’s vision of developing what it calls a China Smart Logistics Network within this decade . The ultimate aim is to solve a common problem that the company describes as a “key industry bottleneck for e-commerce growth in China”, the spokesperson says.
Only sophistication and specialization can ensure that Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall platforms will function efficiently in the future. The company wants to be able to guarantee same-day delivery nationwide . And it believes this will be possible only if all the parties involved form partnerships and strategic alliances to actively participate in the development of a ‘Modern 21st Century Logistics Network’.
It’s an ambitious attempt. According to the company, over the next 5-10 years, the newly formed Cainiao will oversee the construction of a nationwide warehousing network that will cover a total area as large as 560 American football fields (3 million square meters approximately). Beijing, Tianjin, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta are some of the locations under consideration to build these logistics hubs. Since the project is conceived as an Open Logistics Platform, its partners, Taobao sellers and B2C websites can openly share facilities and all the logistics data.
{space}.2012 is a triumphant year for e-commerce in China.
Alibaba, the owner of Taobao and TMall online store has reached top place as the most profitable Internet company in terms of net profit in Q4; several leading e-commerce providers are contending for larger market share while continuing to fuel the growth of the market. M-commerce is also booming.
Here’s a look at what China market holds for M-commerce in 2012 and beyond.
First of all, M-commerce user base has been growing steadily since 2009, it reached 149 million by the end of 2012 and expects to top 352 million by 2015 .
In terms of market share, No one can beat Taobao ‘s dominance at 62.7% . Jingdong , previously called 360 buy , remains a distant second at 16.7% , followed by a few other players like QQ, Suning, Vancl, Dung-dung and Yihaodian.
Moneywise, total revenue of M-commerce was merely 100 million US dollars in 2009 , the figure topped 7.7 billion mark in 2012 and expects to reach 40.8 billion by 2015 .
For M-commerce users, almost equal percentage of men and women shop online, the difference is less than 1%. However the number of women users is expected to catch up with men quickly.
China still has a regionally imbalanced economy. Most M-commerce shoppers come from affluent areas in the eastern part of China characterised by mega cities and dense population. For instance, 31.3%, 22.2% and 17.2% shoppers are from south China, east China and north China respectively where three largest metropolitan cities Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing are located.
There’re quite few choices for smartphone operation system. Android leads the market at 62.5% , followed by iOS at 32.7% and Symbian at 4.5%, which is still used on large number of low-end devices. Windows has got only 0.3% and there is lots of catch up to do for Microsoft.
Shoppers on Android, iOS and Symbian follow similar trends in time of shopping. However, while shopping on Android and iOS peak during the rush hours in the morning and afternoon, on the other hand, a large number of users on Symbian shop close to midnight.
Women and men have quite different tendencies in products bought. Women’s top purchases include women’s clothing, shoes, bags, cosmetic and skincare, and mother and baby products; men’s purchases include men’s clothing, women’s clothing, and 3C products.
Now, the average monthly spend for Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4. While the spend under 8 dollars went down from 27.2% to 19.7% , spend in the 8 dollars to 48 dollars range has shown steady growth throughout the year. The spend level is expected to grow along with the improvement of living standard and maturization of large payment on mobile phone.
Concern for payment security is clearly indicated in payment method. 33.2% shoppers choose cash on delivery and 32.6% 3rd party payment such as Taobao’s Alipay. Only 13.2% choose online banking and 11.2% mobile payment. Less than 5% pay through China Mobile payment Easyown, and 2.4% through bank transfer.
For delivery method , around 67% shoppers use privately-run courier services due to price advantage and speed of delivery, around 21% choose EMS, a service run by China Post for security and better coverage as it’s often the only option for delivery to remote regions in China.
For users not choosing online shopping on mobile phone, the leading concerns are payment security, small screen that doesn’t provide good user-experience and slow network speed. Other concerns include, heard too many negative reviews, it’s troublesome to set up mobile payment, don’t have the right resources, worry about not good at using mobile online shopping, don’t know how to set up, don’t like online shopping, and don’t know smartphone can do online shopping.
This video infographic is presented by Advangent — a digital link to your business in China. Visit us to find more at http://www.advangent.com. Thank you for watching.
The recent “China B2C E-Commerce Report 2013” by Hamburg-based secondary market research company yStats.com provides information about the Chinese B2C E-Commerce market. Aside from trends, it covers revenues, the share of B2C E-Commerce on total retail sales, product categories, Internet user and shopper data, as well as information about leading players in B2C E-Commerce in China.
Chinese B2C E-Commerce expected to grow by approximately 30 Percent annually over the next Years
B2C E-Commerce is gaining more and more ground in China. According to forecasts, it is expected to grow by more than 30 percent annually between 2010 and 2016. Overall, fashion, shoes and bags, as well as computers and household appliances are among the most popular product categories online. B2C E-Commerce with luxury goods is one of the leading trends. In recent years, this segment has grown more strongly than traditional B2C E-Commerce.
A growing number of Chinese residents use social networks to purchase products online. Social Commerce is expected to become even more significant in China than in the USA. M-Commerce is also gaining in importance. Between 2011 and 2012, M-Commerce grew approximately fivefold and now accounts for more than four percent of total B2C E-Commerce sales .
Amazon is only in fifth Place among Online Retailers in China
Leading Chinese online retailers include Tmall [ of Alibaba Group ], 360buy , Tencent and Suning.com . Amazon is only in fifth place in China, with a market share of less than three percent . In 2011 , Alibaba Group’s Tmall.com generated more than 100 billion CNY [ $16.3 billion ] in revenue, increasing its revenue by a three-digit growth rate. Some foreign companies also try to gain a foothold in the Chinese B2C E-Commerce market. In 2012, US company Toys’R‘Us opened its first online shop in China. However, online retailers face problems with the delivery of products ordered online. Consequently, retailers such as VANCL and 360buy are currently developing their own delivery solutions as shown in yStats.com’s “China B2C E-Commerce Report 2013”.
B2C E-Commerce and M-Commerce in China are expected to continue growing by double- to triple-digit percentage figures. However, the share of Internet users who also make purchases online is still much lower than in other countries of the Asia-Pacific region such as Japan and Australia.
A newly released study by the Hamburg based secondary research company yStats points to trends expected to affect the B2C E-Commerce market in the coming years. Online shopping is likely to become more personalized, with retailers customizing their services and integrating online sales channels such as websites and social networks on any device that will connect to the Internet. M-Commerce is expected to play an ever larger role in the future, with over half a billion customers following the trend to shop via mobile devices by 2016 . Moreover, throughout the world, online shoppers are forecasted to increasingly prefer to pay online when buying over the Internet, causing the online and mobile payment markets to grow strongly, especially in Asia.
Worldwide B2C E-Commerce growth will be led by large increases in the Asia-Pacific region
As current trends continue, Asia-Pacific is expected to overtake North America as the region with the highest B2C E-Commerce sales in 2013 and to account for over a third of global B2C E-Commerce revenues. By 2016, the Asia-Pacific region’s share is likely to increase further, while the North America and Western Europe shares of world total B2C E-Commerce are expected to steadily erode. Still, in 2013 USA is projected to remain by far the largest B2C E-Commerce market worldwide. One of the major trends there is expected to be growth of M-Commerce, reflected in triple-digit growth rates of mobile payments in the years to 2016. The Asia-Pacific region’s growth is expected to be led by China , with the number of online shoppers there projected to reach almost 2.5 times the number in the USA by 2016 . M-Commerce is gaining popularity in China as well, with mobile sales on total B2C E-Commerce sales projected to triple by 2015 . The online sales of luxury goods such as health and beauty products, apparel and watches has led the recent surge in B2C E-Commerce in China. New delivery systems and payment methods are being implemented in that country as well, helping to tap into the great potential for online commerce.
Intense growth foreseen in other nations
The other BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia and India, are also projected to see their B2C E-Commerce markets boom in the coming years. In India B2C E-Commerce is expected to see intense growth as soon as the payment environment is improved, since the current cash-on-delivery method of payment is seen as a hindrance to growth. The growth of Russian B2C E-Commerce is driven by the increasing Internet audience, already the largest in Europe, and increased online sales are anticipated as the challenge of product fulfillment is overcome. In Brazil online shopping benefits from growing mobile Internet penetration and social commerce. In Mexico B2C E-Commerce is forecasted to grow at double-digit rates in the years to 2015, with online travel sales leading the market. Another emerging B2C E-Commerce market is Africa. Growing smartphone penetration, especially in South Africa, is expected to boost M-Commerce and mobile payment markets on the continent.
Another trend influencing worldwide growth in online sales is the concept of group buying. In the Middle East particularly, group buying and daily deals websites have boosted B2C E-Commerce. Sales of Groupon in one nation in the region were so strong last year that the vendor could not keep up with the demand.
Growth expected in travel and gaming sectors
Among other trends highlighted in the yStats report, social media are forecasted to play an increasing role in the travel segment of the global B2C E-Commerce market, by helping customers research information for a trip. Moreover, the demand for travel arrangements adjusted for use on smartphones is likely to grow. Another market segment, online gambling, is expected to undergo a change in the years to 2015, with sports betting losing some of its share to lottery and casino.
Editor* Sandor Nassa August 2013
This mini-ebook is considered a continuation of the notes from my blog "Experience the Cloud" in "China is the epicenter of mobile online, but means, and HTML5-fresh-fresh generation" [August 5, 2013] and is dedicated to tracking the trends, and also the right messages, that led to these conclusions:
21 November 2012 [16:30-16:50]: DST's John Lindfors knows how the online, and especially the mobile, world is taking over, and the wide range of skills of startups that are becoming evident thanks to this unprecedented connectivity. But will he actually have a chance to explain how they perceive the activity of European startups in Asia? John Lindfors is a fellow at Digital Sky Technologies (DST) and Director of the Asia office in Hong Kong. He joined DST in 2010. Prior to DST, he was a partner in the European Technology and Media division at Goldman Sachs. He joined Goldman Sachs in London in 1993 and spent 17 years in the Development and Media division in London and New York. He holds a Master of Science in Finance from the Swedish School of Economics in Helsinki.
Registration
The Upcoming Mobile Internet Superpower
download this PDF-format mini e-book (now with an extensive follow-up & ‘The global forces behind …’ analysis, later in this post )
Subtitle: China is the epicenter of the mobile Internet world, so of the next-gen HTML5 web
You can see the entire video here: http: // fora. TV/2013/07/11/Around_the_world_in_almost_10_slides Matt Hiscock, a senior vice president of Asos US, is Fashion e-commerce companies in order to meet the demand of customers in China. Talk about how you think.
http: // fora. TV/2013/05/21/do_in_rome_the_romans_do _-_ Winning_strategy_strategy_Strategy_market shanghai Jahwa United Co. LTD. Koya shows how the microblog tools, such as the Webeau, which are equivalent to the Chinese Twitter, can be useful for globalization of the brand.
The low priced, Android based smartphones of China will change the global market [Sept 10, 2012]
$48 Mogu M0 “peoplephone”, i.e. an Android smartphone for everybody to hit the Chinese market on November 15 [Nov 9, 2012]
$99 Android 4.0.3 7” IPS tablet with an Allwinner SoC capable of 2160p Quad HD and built-in HDMI–another inflection point, from China again [Dec 3, 2012]
Aug’13: Xiaomi $130 Hongmi superphone END MediaTek MT6589 quad-core Cortex-A7 SoC with HSPA+ and TD-SCDMA is available for Android smartphones and tablets of Q1 delivery [Dec 12, 2012; Aug 1, 2013]
China: Entry-level dual core IPS WVGA (480×800) smartphones $65+ now, quad-core $70+ in June [April 29, 2013]
(金立), the emerging global competitor on the smartphone market [July 22, 2013]
Eight-core MT6592 for superphones and big.LITTLE MT8135 for tablets implemented in 28nm HKMG are coming from MediaTek to further disrupt the operations of Qualcomm and Samsung [July 20-29, 2013]
Xiaomi, OPPO and Meizu–top Chinese brands of smartphone innovation [Aug 1, 2013]
Superphones turning point: segment satured with Tier 1 globals while the Chinese locals are at less than 40% of the Samsung price [Aug 3, 2013]
IMT-Advanced (4G) for the next-generations of interactive mobile services, China is triumphant [Oct 24, 2010]
Good TD-LTE potential for target commercialisation by China Mobile in 2012 [July 13, 2011 – Feb 8, 2012]
TD-SCDMA: US$3B into the network (by the end of 2012) and 6 million phones procured (just in October)[ Oct 18, 2011]
China becoming the lead market for mobile Internet in 2012/13 [Dec 1, 2011]
MWC 2012: the 4G/LTE lightRadio network [Oct 16, 2012]
China: 20,000 TD-LTE base stations in 13 cities by the end of 2012 and about 200,000 base stations in 100 cities launched in 2013 with the 2.6GHz TDD spectrum planning just started—SoftBank with TD-LTE strategy in Japan getting into global play with Sprint (also the 49% owner of US TD-LTE champion, Clearwire) acquisition [Oct 16, 2012]
download this PDF-format mini e-book
Now an extensive FOLLOW-UP (& ‘The global forces behind …’ analysis after that)
With smartphone penetration still in the early stages in China, a new study indicates that the country could become a “one screen nation,” outpacing the US in consumers who use smartphones as their sole or primary media device, according to research developed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Interactive Internet Advertising Committee of China (IIACC).
The research revealed that media consumption is more impacted by smartphone ownership in China. More than a quarter of China-based smartphone owners report less TV watching and reduced print consumption as a result of owning a mobile connected device (28% and 27% respectively). In comparison to their US counterparts, China-based smartphone owners are 86% more likely to report less TV usage and 42% more likely to report less print usage .
In contrast to China smartphone owners’ concentrated focus on the small screen , US smartphone owners are much more likely to consume other media with their mobile devices in hand. For example, while watching TV, smartphone users report participating in Internet communication (51% US vs. 10% China), reading social media (38% US vs. 9% China), and conducting a local search (34% US vs. 8% China). The data shows similar disparities when it comes to reading print media, the research found.
The two firms said the research also illustrates Americans’ greater dependency on their smartphones as devices that they would “never leave home without” (69%). In comparison, merely 6% of their China counterparts said the same. Approximately one-third (34%) of Americans said that their smartphone is the “first thing I reach for when I wake up,” as opposed to 7% of China-based smartphone owners.
China-based consumers are also more apt to use their smartphones for web browsing than Americans (32% China vs. 21% US), the research found. More than one fifth (23%) of China-based respondents said that they spent three hours or more per day in the last week accessing the Internet with their smartphones . The top reason they cited for turning to their smartphones was “ entertainment .”
August 5-E -commerce giant Alibaba has invested in the microblog service Weibo, and users have taken everything from bikini to coffin. Anita Lee analyzes the reaction.
There is no doubt that television will be the next technical battlefield. However, the lowest certainty is, and for the end of the company, which is more profitable for the technology, which is the last, which is the last company stands up. Motley Fool's analyst, Lions George, reports on E-commerce, online auctions, and Alibaba, a huge Chinese Internet company in smart TV operating systems, as found out this week. Alibaba's entry into the nex t-generation television market is expected to be $ 265 billion, and it is frowning in traders around the world.
August 1 9-Russian mobile phone manufacturers have launched an economy model equipped with many functions, and Apple is facing the fact that market share in China is shrinking. Can you release a sluggish performance by launching a cheaper iPhone?
August 2 0-Apple has been deprived of inexpensive rivals in China. However, on the other hand, the collaboration with major telecommunications carriers, China Mobile (China Mobile), is approaching, and it has the potential to change the history of the country, which has a population of 1 billion.
In order to set information technology at the center of the rise, China has launched a new broadband China strategy. Like the United States and Europe, the challenge is to ensure that speeding up broadband will improve industrial productivity and home convenience.
A more foreign-affiliated business operator develops TD-LTE [Video posted by CHINA DAILY on March 14, 2012 on the Sphrazortv YouTube channel].
March 14, 2012: Kanzhou, the chairman of the China Moving Communications, and a member of the China Political Cooperative and Commerce Council (CPPCC), talked about the development and spread of TD-LTE as an international standard of 4G. 。
Softbank's president Song Masayoshi opposed the acquisition of a sprint by the dish network.
Sprint and SoftBank want to secure more profitable transactions with network equipment companies, mobile phone manufacturers, and creditors by integrating the profits of the two companies. Their goal is to make Sprint a powerful competition partner of Berizon, AT & amp; amp; T, T-mobile. Sprint and SoftBank plan are greatly dependent on valuable wireless frequency bands managed by clear wires. This frequency band is a license broadcast for smartphone users to send, download, or use other data. Sprint has signed a contract to purchase about half of the clear wire shares (not yet belonged to the sprint) of $ 5 per share. The merger of clear wires is part of the Sprint and SoftBank plan submitted to the FCC. The clear wire shareholder will vote on the merger with Sprint on July 8. Click here for details: http: // www. Kansascity. Com/2013/06/25/4311893/Sprint-Shareholders-pprove-deal. Html #TORYLINK = cpy
August 1 5-Chinese company Xiomi released a lo w-priced smartphone that can enhance its advantage in Apple in the local market, but the highest executive Ray Zinin is completely different from the company. He says that there is an ambition.
August 15, G. -China's largest Internet company Tencent has always increased users and burns the charts. However, the latest business results point to a more complex future of cost increase and strict competition.
As the popularity of text messaging increases, the number of players entering this competitive space is increasing. One of them is the WeChat application for Tencent Holdings in China. WeChat is currently the number one messaging application in China. Follow on Twitter/Facebook/Wechat @ctvnews
More than 50 mobile carriers worldwide have so far committed to TDD LTE technology , and over 30 OEMs have commercially launched TD-LTE compatible devices, with a major proportion of these devices supporting both FDD and TDD modes of operation.
This forecast datasheet presents revenue and shipment market size and forecasts for both infrastructure and devices, along with subscription and service revenue projections for the LTE market as a whole, as well as separate projections for the TD-LTE and FDD-LTE sub-markets from 2012 through to 2017. Historical figures are also presented for 2010 and 2011, along with vendor market share data.
Driven by large scale TDD spectrum availability and the technology’s lower deployment costs, the industry witnessed several prominent TD-LTE network deployments in late 2011 and early 2012 , including Softbank in Japan, Etisalat Mobily and STC in Saudi Arabia, and Bharti Airtel in India. More recently, in October 2012, the TD-LTE ecosystem received a major boost when China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that the entire 190 MHz of spectrum in the 2.5/2.6 GHz band will be allocated for TD-LTE deployments in China , which harmonizes its TDD spectrum with Japan and the US, two major LTE markets .
These developments could allow the TD-LTE ecosystem to reach significant economies of scale, boosting further infrastructure and device investments in TD-LTE technology.
universe{space}
Sprint (NYSE:S) will be able to deploy Clearwire’s 2.5 GHz spectrum for TD-LTE service on a nationwide basis now that it is flush with fresh capital from SoftBank, which now controls 78 percent of Sprint, according to Sprint CFO Joe Euteneuer. Sprint formally took control of Clearwire earlier this month.
Steve Elfman, president of network operations at Sprint, noted during the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call that Sprint now plans to deploy Clearwire’s 2.5 GHz spectrum on all 38,000 of its planned Network Vision cell sites and even more sites than that in a nationwide rollout. Previously, Sprint had said it would use Clearwire’s spectrum as a “hotspot” LTE network to offload traffic in urban markets.
In an interview with FierceWireless , Euteneuer said SoftBank’s $21.6 billion acquisition–which includes $5 billion in new capital and allowed Sprint to buy Clearwire–spurred Sprint to make the shift in strategy. The move will let Sprint add more capacity to its own FDD-LTE network, which it is still in the process of being built out. Euteneuer noted that Sprint and Clearwire originally planned to deploy Clearwire’s spectrum on around 5,000 cell sites as an offload network in urban markets. Those plans are still proceeding this year, but Sprint now wants to expand that to improve the customer experience.
“Now that we own 100 percent of Clearwire, with the help of SoftBank, we said, how do we take full advantage of the 2.5 GHz spectrum?” Euteneuer said. “The best way to do that is to have it fully integrated with the rest of your spectrum capabilities. And to do that you really need to put it on every tower.”
The Sprint CFO said because of the weaker propagation characteristics of 2.5 GHz, Sprint will deploy small cells and other sites beyond the 38,000 Network Vision sites the company has mapped out. He said it is unclear at this point if the nationwide deployment of Clearwire’s spectrum will be finished by the end of 2014. Clearwire commands around 160 MHz of spectrum in the top 100 markets.
It is unclear exactly how many TD-LTE cell sites using Clearwire’s spectrum will be online by year-end. Iyad Tarazi, head of network development and integration for Sprint, recently told CNET that Sprint will have 5,000 Clearwire sites on air by year-end , but on Tuesday Elfman was less specific, and said “we’ll have several thousand sites up this year because of the work that Clearwire was doing before us.”
“We are working with Clearwire on plans and will share more soon,” Sprint spokeswoman Roni Singleton said in a follow-up statement.
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said the deployment of a nationwide LTE network on 2.5 GHz will help give Sprint “competitive parity” with its rivals. “And the important thing in terms of what we believe will be a better, a superior network experience will depend upon how quickly we roll out the 2.5 [GHz spectrum], because that will give us extraordinary capacity and some speed and performance advantages in the market,” he said. …
DST Global in which Chinese projects account for half of the latest investment projects [The Wall Street Journa l-Venture Capital Dispatch, 29 JANUARY 2013
Yuri Milner, Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Sky Technologies, talked about investment strategies for social networking companies, such as Facebook, to Bloomberg's Chris Valerio. Digital Sky is a no n-listed company investing in Interne t-related businesses. Bloomberg's Betty LIU is also listening.
The 4th President of Israel "IN THE FACE OF TOMORROW 2012" Prenary Session: My recipe is the best tomorrow. Speaker: Yuri Milner
The global forces behind the overall setup of Chinese Internet giants:
China’s doors may be closed to social network company Facebook, but for its pre-IPO investor DST Global, the gates are wide open.
As a result, the firm has managed to invest about $1.5 billion into China-based companies over the past four years , translating into around half the amount of capital it has invested worldwide, Partner John Lindfors told Venture Capital Dispatch.
Unlike some foreign investors, DST Global is happy to take a minority shareholding in portfolio companies, and being a late-stage investor with the ability to write bigger checks, it has also encountered less competition among China-focused investors when targeting new deals.
“We don’t want to take control. If you think about it, some of the most successful companies have been run by their owners. We’re trying to find the next Bill Gates, and back him,” said Lindfors.
DST Global counts Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and online retailer Jingdong Mall as part of its Asian portfolio. DST, alongside other private equity firms like Silver Lake agreed to buy shares in Alibaba at a tender offer of $1.6 billion in 2011. That same year, DST Global also participated in a $1.5 billion third round of funding in Jingdong , with media reports stating that DST bought a 5% share in the online retailer for $500 million.
Although DST Global spent around $1.5 billion on both of those deals, said Lindfors, he noted that the firm is also “happy” to invest far less in a deal, even from $50 million, as deal sizes in China can often be smaller due to the general market size.
Other firms active in China’s Internet space include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital, which typically target lesser-sized deals than DST Global, opening the playing field for the Russian investment firm. In fact, KPCB China Investment Partner Wei Zhou last year told Venture Capital Dispatch that it had even started investing in pre-Series A deals.
DST Global, headed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner , expects to invest in a “few” more deals in the next year or two across China’s Internet sector, specifically in e-commerce and mobile Internet , on expectations that growing domestic consumption and increasing users of mobile devices will bolster growth in these areas, said Lindfors.
“We see an explosion of smartphone usage,” said Lindfors. Indeed, industry insiders, including Kai Fu Lee, founder of Chinese investment firm Innovation Works, predict China will have 500 million smartphone users by the end of this year, jumping up from the current 330 million.
On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, DST Global has invested in the likes of Twitter and now-Nasdaq-listed Facebook–which faces restricted use in China–and manages three funds. Last year, Bloomberg reported that DST Global was raising $1 billion for a new technology fund, and separately reported that DST Global I achieved an annual 151% gross internal rate of return. Lindfors declined to comment on the firm’s funds.
DST Global likes other countries across Asia such as Indonesia and India, but for the meantime, opportunities are too early stage, said Lindfors , who previously worked at investment bank Goldman Sachs .
DST Global, which has an Asia-based office in Hong Kong, was set up by entrepreneur Milner, and is best known for investing $200 million in Facebook in 2009, and then a subsequent round in 2011 worth $500 million with Goldman Sachs .
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Masayoshi Son (Masayoshi Son (Japanese: Masayoshi Son: Sleep Sleeping? Hepburn?, Korean: 손 의 의 선-의 , SoftBank Mobile Director Sprint Co., Ltd. is the main executive officer. According to Forbes, as of 2011, the price of the unsuccessful situation (about $ 70 billion in the case of Dotcom in 2000) is drawn-successful funds. [2] Forbes also calls him a charity.
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Masayoshi Sleep is popular with extreme sel f-assertions that return the heels of their business. For example, if the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, when the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has rejected his specific telecommunications license, he would be in [3] [4], if he did not get the permission he wanted, He threatened to open his path from within the provinces (as described in this [5], he did not take any fuel to strengthen his threats).
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rumor
According to McKinsey Global Institute, China's online sales could reach $650 billion by 2020.
Watch out, Amazon.com. A Chinese e-commerce company is out to redefine notions of customer service. If you think free shipping in two days is fast, how about in three hours?
In cities across China, customers can order everything from fresh produce to a new laptop, get it delivered for free the same day, pay cash on delivery and even refuse the goods at the door if they fail to meet expectations.
It’s all part of a strategy of JD.com (formerly 360buy) to become China’s largest e-commerce company and expand globally. China’s booming and highly competitive e-commerce market gets more interesting all the time, and JD.com is a major player to watch.
JD.com stands for parent company Jingdong , which has grown to become China’s largest online company that sells directly to consumers, with 100 million registered users, 5 million orders a day, and a whopping 60 billion RMB in sales ($10 billion) in 2012. The company rebranded itself earlier this year and may be planning a U.S. IPO.
Jingdong Vice President and General Manager Shi Tao, who spent more than three years working for Amazon China, visited Seattle this week to introduce the company and meet with prospective customers and partners.
JD.com operates differently than its major competitor, Alibaba’s Tmall , in that Jingdong spent years building its own network of warehouses and fulfillment centers , allowing it to manage its own delivery rather than simply matching buyers and sellers or relying on third parties to ship the goods.
“Chinese consumers want to shop on the platform with the best experience, especially shipping and post-sales customer services,” Shi said. In May Jingdong introduced nighttime and three-hour delivery services in six Chinese cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and Shenyang. The company offers same-day delivery in 27 major cities and next-day delivery in more than 150 cities across China.
The veracity of Xiaomi's situation was confirmed by Yuri Milner of DST Advisors. He led a third funding round of $216 million in June, valuing the company at $4 billion, with the participation of the Singaporean government.
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RMB
What was not mentioned in the DST/Lindfors interview earlier:
DST has strong ties to DST’s partners and employees Goldman Sachs . Alexander Tamas in 2008 and John Lindfors , Goldman Sachs, joined DST in employees include Rahul Mehta and 2011, DST has orchestrated an brought Goldman Sachs into the
Goldman Sachs . The majority of have previously worked at joined DST from Goldman Sachs a previous partner at 2010. Other ex-Goldman Sachs Shou Zi Chew . In January investment into Facebook and deal.
{Please note}.
Rumor
Tencent Holdings, a major Chinese Internet company, is said to have invested $300 million in DST in April 2010, making it an indirect investor in Xiaomi, but both Tencent and Xiaomi have categorically refused to explain.{Tencent}
Rumor
{ROME}
Internet - Online games and media Market value: $88. 608 million
Shareholders (%) MIH China (Naspers) 33. 9 Pony Ma 10. 2 JP Morgan 4. 5
Tencent Holdings Limited (“Tencent” or the “Company”, SEHK 00700), a leading provider of Internet and mobile & telecommunications value-added services in China, and Digital Sky Technologies Limited (“DST”), one of the largest Internet companies in the Russian-speaking and Eastern European markets, today jointly announced that Tencent will invest approximately US$300 million in DST, thereby establishing a long-term strategic partnership between the two companies.
The aggregate consideration of approximately US$300 million, which will be paid in cash, gives Tencent approximately a 10.26% economic interest in DST upon completion of the transaction. Tencent will hold approximately 0.51% of the total voting power of DST and have the right to nominate one observer to the DST Board.
DST and Tencent will embark on a long-term partnership and co-operation as they seek to benefit from each other’s insights gained from their respective markets. DST’s deep understanding of the Russian Internet market, together with its leading brands such as Mail.ru, Odnoklassniki and VKontakte, will enable Tencent to benefit from the high growth of the Russian-speaking Internet market. At the same time, Tencent’s leading position in China will provide DST and its companies with unique and valuable operational insights and access to its regional network that can help DST further accelerate its growth path.
Chief Executive Officer of DST, Mr. Yuri Milner, said, “We are extremely pleased to welcome Tencent as a shareholder in DST. This investment is a vote of confidence in DST from the market leader in China and one of the world’s most successful and dynamic Internet companies overall. Our teams share many common views and beliefs and a clear vision about the significant opportunities that lay ahead. We look forward to working together with Tencent and benefiting from their expertise as we both push forward with our plans to capitalize on this immense growth in our markets.”
President of Tencent, Mr. Martin Lau, said, “We are excited to enter into a long-term strategic partnership with DST, a key global Internet player and a leader in Russian-speaking Internet markets. The investment allows us to benefit from the fast-growing Internet market in Russia, as well as to leverage our technical and operational know-how to strengthen the leadership position of DST and explore new business opportunities in the Russian-speaking Internet markets.”
Details of the transaction can also be obtained from the statutory disclosure documents available on http://www.hkexnews.hk website and http://www.tencent.com/ir .
About Digital Sky Technologies
DST was founded in 2005 and is one of the largest Internet companies in the Russian-speaking and Eastern European markets and one of the leading investment groups globally to exclusively focus on internet related companies. DST, together with its affiliate DST Global, also hold stakes in Internet world leaders such as Facebook and Zynga. DST is a privately held company backed by leading Russian and Western financial institutions. For more information please visit http://www.dst-global.com .
About Tencent
Tencent aims to enrich the interactive online experience of Internet users in China by providing a comprehensive range of Internet and wireless value-added services. Through its various online platforms, including Instant Messaging QQ, web portal QQ.com, QQ Game portal, multi-media social networking service Qzone and wireless portal, Tencent services the largest online community in China and fulfills the user’s needs for communication, information, entertainment and e-Commerce on the Internet.
Tencent has three main streams of revenues: Internet value-added services, mobile and telecommunications value-added services and online advertising.
Shares of Tencent Holdings Limited are traded on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited, under stock code 00700. The Company became one of the 43 constituents of the Hang Seng Index (HSI) on June 10, 2008. For more information, please visit http://www.tencent.com/ir .
DST to assume full control of Mail.ru upon share swap with Naspers
Johannesburg and Moscow, 14 July 2010 – Naspers Limited (“Naspers”), the broad based international media group, and Digital Sky Technologies Limited (“DST”), one of the largest internet companies in the Russian-speaking markets, announces today that Naspers’s subsidiary Myriad International Holdings B.V. (“ MIH ”) will take a 28,7% stake in DST . The transaction will be effected by Naspers contributing its 39,3% stake in Mail.ru into DST and investing US$388m in cash. Concurrently, Mail.ru management and other minorities will also convert their shares into DST.
Upon the close of this transaction, DST will own over 99,9% of Mail.ru. Mail.ru is the leading communication and entertainment platform in the Russian-speaking internet world, with over 50m registered email accounts, leading market share in MMO games and one of the leading social networks in Russia.
Naspers and DST have worked closely together over the past three years as co-owners of Mail.ru and today’s transaction will enable them to further strengthen that relationship.
Chief Executive Officer of DST, Yuri Milner, said, “Naspers’s strategic insight has already proven to be valuable in our partnership and we welcome the expertise they will bring to DST. We are delighted to announce this transaction and look forward to creating further value through our relationship.”
Antonie Roux, head of Naspers’s internet operations, commented: “We have known DST and its management for years and we share a similar view and approach. We are excited to strengthen our partnership. This opportunity further expands our exposure to emerging markets and the fast-growing internet sector.”
About Digital Sky Technologies
DST was founded in 2005 and is one of the largest internet companies in the Russian-speaking and Eastern European markets and one of the leading investment groups globally to exclusively focus on internet related companies. DST, together with its affiliate DST Global, also holds stakes in internet world leaders such as Facebook, Zynga and Groupon. DST is a privately held company backed by leading international financial institutions and companies. For more information please visit http://www.dstglobal.com.
About Naspers
Naspers is a leading emerging market media group operating in 129 countries. It is listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE), with an ADR (American Deposit Receipt) listing on the London Stock Exchange. The group’s principal operations are in internet platforms (focusing on commerce, communities, content, communication and games), pay-television and the provision of related technologies and print media (including publishing, distribution and printing of magazines, newspapers and books). The group’s most significant operations in emerging markets include South Africa and subSaharan Africa, China, Central and Eastern Europe, India, Brazil, Russia and Thailand. For more information visit http://www.naspers.com.
Rumor
WeChat on the rise. Tencent's mobile social platform "WeChat" has been developing at a faster pace than expected since its launch. Monthly active users (MAU) exceeded 236 million in Q2 2013 (Q1 2013: 194 million), and new services such as sticker resale, targeted advertising, and the first game released on the platform, "TTAXC (天爱消除)", have shown potential for revenue generation.
rumor
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Online advertising is a major earnings driver at the gross profit level.
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Corrupt people on Facebook [View blog "Americans for Innovation or Cover FB", July 11, 2013] 47 million "likes" undermine the supremacy of the US Constitution and laws
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Company Profile
Tencent is a leading internet conglomerate in China with operations in online games, social networks, advertising and e-commerce. The company operates leading online games in China while its mobile chat application, which has expanded globally, has a user base exceeding 300m.
Business overview
Founded in 1915, Naspers is a leading multinational group of eCommerce and media platforms, with operations in more than 133 countries. Listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) since September 1994, it also has an ADR listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
The group’s principal operations are in e-commerce , paytelevision & related technologies and print media . It also has minority investments in listed, integrated social-network platforms Tencent (SEHK 0700) and Mail.ru (LSE: MAIL).
The group focuses on attaining sustainable market positions in growing emerging markets which it believes to present above-average growth opportunities. These markets include South Africa and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, China, Brazil and the rest of Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East.
INTERNET
Naspers operates platforms that offer customers fast, intuitive and secure environments where they can communicate, participate, entertain and shop. The group’s e-commerce services include marketplaces, general and vertical e-tail, classifieds, lead-generation and payments.
Naspers major e-commerce operations are:
Allegro (97%), a leading e-commerce business in Central and Eastern Europe.
BuscaPé (95%), a major e-commerce platform in Brazil.
OLX (84%), a strong classifieds operator in a number of emerging markets.
Other investments include 36Boutiques, Avito, Brandsclub, Dealfish, Dubizzle, eMag, Fashion Days, Flipkart, Fixeads, ibibo Group, kalahari.com, Korbitec, LevelUp!, Markafoni, Movile, Netretail, OLX, PayU, PriceCheck, redBus, Ricardo, Sanook!, Souq, Sulit, Tokobagus, Travel Boutique Online and Trendsales.
Naspers also holds minority positions in:
Tencent (34%) – China’s largest and most used internet services platform.
Mail.ru Group [ DST ] (29%) – the leading internet company in Russian-speaking markets.
When Naspers stumbled on a little-known Chinese Internet company in 2001, it could not have dreamed that a US$32m investment would account for more than 80% of the media conglomerate’s R200bn market cap now.
Three Kings and Their Princes
It [ Naspers ] has a market capitalisation of about $57bn and its total revenue for the year to 31 December 2011 was up by 45% to $4,4bn. Profit attributable to equity holders was $1,6bn — 27% higher year on year — and its profit for the second quarter of 2012 was up by 32%. The p:e ratio (share price compared with its earnings) is 33.
Founded in November 1998, Tencent has become one of China’s largest and most widely used Internet service portals and, in 2004, it was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
More than 50% of Tencent employees are research and development staff and the company has obtained patents relating to technology for instant messaging, e-commerce, online payment services, search engines, information security, gaming and more.
Its leading Internet platforms in China include instant messaging, social networking (with 580m active users) and a mobile chat and micro-blogging service known as Weixin. It is also the largest online gaming company in the world.
And the DST money is said to come from:
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For starters, read the purposefully written memo to understand the whole situation regarding justice on Facebook and other US systems - the relics are very likely for freedom, but contradict the rule of law in the US [American for Innovation (AFI) Via Open Trial 26, 2013]:
In the late 1990s, innovators Leader Technologies came up with the technology that we now call "social networks". By the time the first patent was filed in 2002, they had invested 145 million hours and more than 10 million dollars. Almost three months later, their own invention "bar" was improved and Mark Zuckerberg and his associates at PayPal took it to market on February 4, 2004. Zuckerberg says that he actually did all the work autonomously for "a week or two" while being hugged by a young woman or preparing for exams.
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rumor
The current FRB chairman Lawrence "Rally" Summers has been a Facebook Sheryl Sandberg CEO since the early 1990s. He was also a mentor of Russia's Yuri Milner, a close relationship with Russia's Oligar Hi, Allicger Asmanov and Kremlin. Summers was one of the tragic Russian voucher systems in the early 1990s and a major economist of the World Bank. Milner is the second largest shareholder of Facebook and cooperates with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. With the support of Goldman and Morgan, Milner has invested $ 1 billion on Facebook before IPO. Interestingly, Hugh Hoffman has definitely contributed to the establishment of Link y-in in 2004. Similarly, the debugging of the Fabalit invention was enthusiastic.
This happened in 2008 after taxpayers in South America rescued Goldman and Morgan Stanley. At present, no one knows the source of these funds, which raised Facebook to $ 100 billion. Milner has a connection with Menabep Bank. Menatep Bank had washed $ 10 billion Russia Mafia funding and had $ 4 billion IMF funds. Sammers' actions did not receive a close scrutiny, but was seriously appointed by the bank shortly after Barak Obama was elected president. See the briefing of Congress.
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Georgia [Bearsley] interviews the true inventor of the public network, Columbus, Ohio, CEO Michael McCBEKEN: George! KSCO AM 1080 April 10, 2013 Leader Technologies CEO Michael McKiben interview [Leadertv100 YouTube Channel, 12 APRIL 2013].
promise
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[18:30] Unbelievable, split review;
{Book}
Georgia: “One of the most interesting, complicated and disturbing stories of the decade.” On April 10, 2013, news-talk show host Georgia Beardslee interviewed Michael McKibben, CEO of Leader Technologies, Columbus, Ohio on her weekly radio show GEORGIA! KSCO 1080 (Santa Cruz, CA) about Leader’s battle with Facebook over Leader’s U.S. Patent No. 7,139,761.
While the video plays, pages from Leader’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Leader Technologies, Inc. v. Facebook, Inc., No. 12-617 (U.S. Supreme Court Nov. 16, 212) will display, page by page (41 pages not counting the appendices). This document can be obtained at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/113545399/P…
For background facts, see also http://americans4innovation.blogspot….
This broadcast and these notes may contain opinion. As with all opinion, the information should not be relied upon without independent verification.
(My collaboration with a listener, 5/31/2013): Washington D.C. is toxic and fiendishly deceptive these days. Speaker John Boehner described the flow of scandal developments as “Drip, drip, drip.” I take this to mean that the Deception Tank is full and starting to leak. (At last!)
Investigators are now uncovering common people driving these scandals . The Leader v. Facebook property rights debacle seems to have been another one of their pet deception projects. Remember, Facebook was judged guilty on 11 of 11 counts of stealing the inventions of Columbus-based innovator Leader Technologies, Inc., yet the federal courts ruled for Facebook anyway. They had to ignore the Consitution to do it.
Many people lusted after Leader’s innovations that we know as “social networking.” Obama and his handlers needed it to raise election dollars and polish Obama’s persona many times a day. Larry Summers, Accel Partners and the PayPal Mafia wanted it as their global financial transactions platform, Zuckerberg and his fellow thieves wanted it as a global voyeur platform to invade everyone’s privacy, the Kremlin wanted it as a money-laundering vehicle, James W. Breyer wanted it as his ‘pump and dump” stock manipulation scheme, the greedy law firms wanted it to rake in fees. And, at least two Federal Circuit Judges Alan D. Lourie and Kimberly A. Moore were beefing up their financial portfolios with the pump of their undisclosed Facebook shares at the IPO. Wow, that’s a lot of interests all lusting after Michael McKibben’s innovation! (I have interviewed him on this show twice.)
Beware of McBee Strategic lobbyist Jeff Markey bearing gifts
Americans for Innovation has smoked out intimate, undisclosed relationships among Facebook’s chief litigator in Leader v. Facebook , Cooley Godward LLP’s Michael Rhodes, Obama’s Justice Department Cooley “Advisor,” Donald K. Stern, the failed $1.6 billion BrightSource Obama “green” stimulus project, big Facebook IPO winner J.P. Morgan Chase and McBee Strategic’s Steve McBee and Jeff Markey.
This is so convoluted I asked by resident artist to do me a diagram of these relationships. No wonder Washington is so confused. It’s intentional on the part of some morally bankrupt people and organizations (click to enlarge):
Figure 1: Conflicts of Interest Map among Barack Obama, Executive Branch, Justice Department, Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, Michael Rhodes, Donald K. Stern, McBee Strategic, Steve McBee, Jeff Markey, Judge Leonard P. Stark, Judge Alan D. Lourie, Judge Kimberly A. Moore, Leader v. Facebook, BrightSource, Solyndra,Tesla Motors, Solar City, Elon Musk and 47 million “likes” on Facebook.
McBee Strategic and their lobbyist Jeff Markey have lied at least twice on disclosures that we have already identified. On their BrightSource Senate disclosure on 11/20/2009 they answered “No” to affiliated organizations that actively participate in their activities. This was false since on 4/23/2009 they had publicly announced their alliance with Facebook’s attorney Cooley Godward Kronish LLP specifically about helping companies access Obama’s “green energy” money. That’s LIE #1. Then, we discover that Jeff Markey is accustomed to lying whenever it is to his benefit. On 4/30/2004 Markey lied on a financial disclosure that he was an Executive for SAIC in an apparent deception to gain access to the National Congressional Republican Committee. That’s LIE #2.
Markey clearly plays on both sides of the ball in Washington. While he is busy spending Obama’s billions, he donates mostly to Republicans, including MITCH MCCONNELL, ROB PORTMAN, ARLEN SPECTER, LINDSEY GRAHAM. Republicans beware of this wolf in sheep’s clothing. Such cynical parlaying of contacts just to keep one’s job in Washington is why Washington is failing. These people are there for the wrong reasons. They need to get real jobs. Professional bureaucrats and politicians (and the lobbyists who feed on the rotted meat) are the death knell of a democracy.
While we’re on the subject of lying to Congress, then Magistrate Judge Leonard P. Stark told Congress in his 4/22/2010 confirmation hearing that he would follow the decisions of the Supreme Court and the Appeals Courts. However, three months later he ignored that promise and even after instructing the jury to do so, he ignored the Supreme Court’s Pfaff test of on-sale bar evidence, as well as the Federal Circuit’s Group One tests. Obama and his Facebook “friends” just seem to lie all the time.
Don’t believe me? Check out the source material yourself. Here are some of them we downloaded quickly. Please share more as you find your own information.
Since 1990, Larry's updates have already had a bigger impact on big business than anyone could have imagined. If you read Greg Paras' latest study "Larry Summers and the End of the 'Secret Memorandum' Game" [August 22, 2013], you will find that in the late 1990s, when Summers was the Undersecretary of the US Department of Money, Summers was in control of what Paras called "a small gang of bankers and a secret conspiracy of top US Treasury officials to destroy the economic coordination of the entire planet." In fact, it is also worth noting that the creator of the secret memorandum "The End Game" written by Summers is not someone else like Timothy F. Geithner (Assistant Summers). {Summers}
Aff Key Lunch 2013 with Lawrence Summers [YouTube - channel HKTDC, 23 January 2013].
More on Yuri Milner :
Larry Summers seeks primacy in preferred leadership of Fed [YouTub e-channel Bloomberg, 29 July 2013]
A Russian billionaire investor paid $100 million for a French chateau-style mansion in Silicon Valley, marking the highest known price paid for a single-family home in the U.S.
The purchase of the 25,500-square-foot home in Los Altos Hills, Calif., underscores the strength of some luxury properties in an otherwise depressed housing market.
The buyer, Yuri Milner, 49, who heads Digital Sky Technologies and whose investments include Facebook Inc., Groupon Inc. and Zynga Inc., had no immediate plans to move into the home, said a spokesman.
Mr. Milner is the stocky founder of DST, a Moscow-based fund that’s made a splash in Silicon Valley via its investments. Its first in the U.S. was a $200 million check for Facebook in 2009. His primary residence is in Moscow, where he lives with his wife and two children.
The sky seemed to be the limit for Mr. Milner’s new house, a symmetrical limestone mansion with San Francisco Bay views that was inspired by 18th-century French chateaux.
The home has indoor and outdoor pools, a ballroom and a wine cellar. The grounds include a tennis court and inside are chandeliers and a frieze around a skylight in the entryway, among other details.
Mr. Milner bought the home through a limited-liability company; the home wasn’t on the market, according to people familiar with the deal.
Mr. Milner, who studied theoretical physics in Moscow and attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, began his career in Moscow in the 1990s. By 1999, he had focused on the Internet after dabbling in everything from private equity to a macaroni-and-cheese factory. …
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Sunday Times Rich List 2013 reveals the richest members of the UK Jewish community [JewishNewsone, 22 April 2013]].
Bloomberg's Matthew G. Miller knows about Farad Mosiri, who has been connected to Russia's most luxurious person, Alisher Usmanov, and has become a billionaire. Miller has appeared on the Bloomberg TV program "Inbuss with Margaret Brennan".
Alisher Usmanov (+Irina Viner):
Today on MOVERS & SHAKERS, Bloomberg's Betty Liu reports that Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov Big has bet on Apple, investing $100 million in a rebound in the company's shares. She speaks on Bloomberg Television's In The Loop. He is the 35th richest person with just under $20 billion.
Rumours
This year's results for Alisher Usmanov [Moshe Katz YouTube Channel, 21 December 2012].
Alisher Usmanov commented on the situation at Norilsk Nickel. In an exclusive interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel, the well-known Russian businessman said that he does not want to participate in the collusion of oligarchs. According to the co-owner of the big company, it is too early to be disappointed with Facebook. Alisher Usmanov also said that he plans to increase his stake in the social network Vkontakte.
Rumors
USM Holdings - Internet [February 24, 2013]
USM Holdings is one of the world's leading investors in companies in the digital sector. Its deep understanding of the Internet sector plays a key role in the success of its businesses and the development and diversification of Internet services.
Rumors
{USM Holdings}
{RUIMTE}
USM Holdings - si [23 February 2013].
MAIL.RU GROUP
Founded in 1998, Mail.Ru Group is the number one internet company in the high growth Russian-speaking internet market reaching c. 85% of Russian users on a monthly basis. It is the world’s fourth largest internet company based on total page views, with a global monthly audience of 97.4 million users.
In line with its ‘communitainment’ strategy, the company is moving rapidly to build an integrated communications and entertainment platform. Mail.Ru Group comprises the most popular Russian free email service Mail.Ru and two popular Russian-language internet instant messengers. The company operates two leading Russian social networks, My World and Odnoklassniki.ru, and owns a 40% stake in VKontakte, Russia’s number one social networking site. Mail.Ru Group is also a leading player in the online games market.
In 2010, Mail.Ru Group successfully completed an IPO on the London Stock Exchange worth c. US$92 million.
Mail.Ru Group’s aggregate segment revenue in 2012 was RUR 21,151 million, representing a 39% year-on-year increase.
PORTFOLIO INVESTMENTS WITH DST
DST was the group’s first internet investment . In 2008, DST became a backer of Facebook based on a firm belief in the strong growth potential of the internet, and particularly social networking. The current market valuation of Facebook exceeds the initial value at the time of DST ’s entry by approximately seven times .
In 2009, DST spun off DST Russia, later renamed Mail.Ru Group (see above), which is a separate business at present.
Through DST and Mail.Ru Group investments, USM Holdings gained international prominence with stakes in some of the world’s leading and most valuable internet assets, including Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, Zynga, Spotify, Zocdoc, Airbnb, Alibaba and 360buy.
USM HOLDINGS - Steel & Mining [23 February 2013].
USM Holdings owns 82% of Garsdale, a telecoms holding, which in turn controls 50% plus 100 shares of MegaFon, Russia’s second largest mobile operator; 100% of Yota, a pioneering international 4G services provider; and 51% of Peter-Service, a billing services company. Through Garsdale and MegaFon, USM Holdings owns 50% of Euroset, Russia’s number one mobile retailer.
MEGAFON
Formed in 1993, MegaFon is Russia’s second largest mobile operator in terms of revenue and subscribers and the market leader in the mobile data segment .
With over 33,000 employees, MegaFon is a leading universal telecommunications provider with c. 62.7 million wireless subscribers in the Russian Federation as of 31 March 2013 . The company offers a full range of voice, data and other mobile and fixed-line telecommunications services, including digital TV and IP telephony, to retail customers, businesses, government clients and telecommunications services providers. MegaFon operates one of the most extensive 3G networks in Russia and renders a wide range of mobile services in Tajikistan, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The company has a strong track record in innovation and pioneered the introduction of a number of services in Russia, including the launch of MMS and mobile TV in 2004, free incoming calls in 2006, 3G services in 2008, significant reduction in roaming charges in 2011, and 4G/ Long Term Evolution (LTE ) services in 2012 .
Through MegaLabs, a fully owned subsidiary, the company develops a variety of new projects in the promising value-added service (VAS) market in a number of areas, including content and media, mobile finance, mobile advertising, cloud and IT solutions, M2M, e-government and m-health.
MegaFon owns a large distribution network . As of the end of 2012, it included 1,785 owned and operated stores and 1,757 third-party points of sale operating solely under the MegaFon brand. In addition, its acquisition in late 2012 of a 25% stake in Euroset , the largest wireless mobile equipment retailer in Russia, is expected to enhance the company’s initiatives focused on improving the quality of MegaFon’s subscriber base and broadening the marketing of its products.
In November 2012, the company listed c. US$1.7 billion worth of shares in an IPO. The company’s shares are traded on MICEX-RTS , and its GDR s on the London Stock Exchange.
In 2012, MegaFon’s revenue grew 12.4% year-on-year to RUR 272.6 billion. The company demonstrated a strong performance in Q1 2013, achieving consolidated revenue growth of 7.6% y-o-y to RUR 67.7 billion.
YOTA
Yota was founded in 2007. It is the leader of the mobile broadband sector in Russia . It was the first company to offer its subscribers access to services based on WiMAX and LTE technologies , and is one of the leading companies in this segment globally.
In 2013, Yota was divided into two companies : Scartel , which is involved in construction and management of 4G infrastructure , and Yota (Yota LLC), a mobile operator .
Scartel operates LTE networks and provides access to its networks for telecom operators using a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) model. It was the first company worldwide to launch LTE-Advanced technology for a commercial network, enabling data transfer rates of up to 300 Mbps . The company’s LTE networks are currently available in 31 regions and more than 100 cities in Russia. Its total investments in LTE infrastructure in Russia to date exceed US$400 million and are set to reach US$1 billion by the end of 2014.
Yota provides communication services to its subscribers through Scartel’s platform. Yota owns an extensive retail and dealer network throughout Russia, offering its users a truly unlimited LTE experience, coupled with the provision of hardware and the highest level of customer service. At present, Yota services are available in more than 20 major cities in Russia.
Yota and Scartel are 100% owned by the telecoms holding Garsdale, which is part of USM Holdings.
EUROSET
Founded in 1997, Euroset is the largest mobile retail chain in Russia , with more than 5,000 outlets. Its stores offer a wide range of goods, such as handsets, accessories, tablets and netbooks; and services, such as mobile top-ups, repairs and financing.
Euroset is one of the best known brands in the Russian market for consumer goods and services . The retailer’s share of Russia’s mobile phone market is approximately 30%. The company operates in more than 1,500 towns and cities in Russia and Belarus, and attracts more than 40 million customers to its stores each month.
The company today is one of the largest Russian employers , providing jobs to over 30,000 people.
PETER-SERVICE
Peter-Service is the first Russian developer of billing systems for telecoms operators . It provides billing solutions along with product installation, integration and support services. The company has regional offices across Russia and in Ukraine. Since its establishment in 1992, Peter-Service has completed over 100 projects for more than 50 operators of fixed and mobile networks in 10 countries.
USM Holdings Limited (USM Holdings) is a diversified international company with significant holdings in the metallurgical and mining sectors, telecommunications, internet and media. It was established in 2012 to consolidate Alisher Usmanov's various investments and interests, which are the result of his investments and business development over more than 30 years.
UTH RUSSIA
Through UTH Russia , USM Holdings owns some of the country’s most popular outlets in broadcast and digital media. Building the main framework on its two free-to-air channels – the Disney Channel and U channel – and the cable MUZ-TV channel, UTH Russia is on its way to becoming the leader in youth entertainment and lifestyle programming. U channel and the Disney Channel broadcast in more than 880 cities, and the company continues to expand its market share.
The UTH platform also houses the specialist online video service ClipYou, which offers licensed content from leading Russian and international music companies, including some of the top labels, such as Universal Music, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI.
The billionaire businessman reflects a new style of oligarchism that relies on loyalty and predictability.
METALLOINVEST
METALLOINVEST extracts and exploits iron ore from the second largest measured reserve base in the world (c. 14.9 billion tonnes).
In 2011, the company was the largest commercial iron ore producer in Russia/CIS and the fifth largest globally , the leading producer of pellets in Russia/CIS and the third largest globally, and the leading producer of merchant HBI globally.
The main production assets of the company are strategically located in the European part of Russia and the Urals.
The company is organised into three integrated operating segments focusing on mining operations, steel production and auxiliary businesses and other assets. The mining segment includes Lebedinsky GOK and Mikhailovsky GOK, and the steel segment includes OE MK, Ural Steel and Ural Scrap Company. In addition to its mining and steel businesses, the company owns several supporting businesses and other assets that provide services and raw materials to the mining and steel segments.
Lebedinsky GOK is a leading manufacturer of iron ore products in Russia and operates as an integrated mining company whose assets comprise iron ore extraction facilities and secondary processing facilities, including beneficiation and secondary beneficiation plants, a pellet plant and two HBI plants.
Mikhailovsky GOK is the second largest iron ore extraction and processing operation in Russia, after Lebedinsky GOK. In 2014, Mikhailovsky GOK intends to finish construction of what is expected to be the largest pelletising plant in Russia, with a capacity of five million tonnes a year.
OEMK is one of the most modern steel mills in Russia , employing Midrex DRI technology. The unique application and properties of the steel and finished products from OE MK have ensured stable demand in Russia, the CIS and worldwide. It is located close to Lebedinsky GOK, which supplies OEMK with high grade iron ore concentrate through a 26-kilometre slurry pipeline. OEMK sells products for engineering, automotive, pipe, hardware and bearing industries in the domestic market, and exports its high quality pipe and cast billets and long rolled products such as wire coil and bar to foreign customers.
Ural Steel is a major manufacturer of strips for large diameter pipes, pipe billets, bridge construction steel and heavy plates. Ural Scrap Company purchases, processes and delivers ferrous scrap to METALLOINVEST’s steel producing assets.
Baikal Mining Company, a subsidiary of METALLOINVEST, holds the licence for the development of the Udokan copper deposit, which has a mineral resources base of c. 2.7 billion tonnes. Udokan is one of the world’s largest undeveloped deposits of copper amounting to c. 25.7 million tonnes of metal . The licence covers 60% of copper deposits in Russia.
With a 21% holding, METALLOINVEST is a major shareholder of the Canadian company Nautilus Minerals . Nautilus Minerals commercially explores the seafloor for massive sulphide systems, which are a potential source of high grade copper, gold, zinc and silver. The company is developing the world’s first seafloor copper-gold project in Papua New Guinea .
METALLOINVEST has a shareholding of approximately 5% in Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of nickel (18% of the market) and palladium (41%), as well as a leading producer of platinum (11%) and copper (2%). Norilsk Nickel also produces multiple by-products, such as cobalt, rhodium, silver, gold, iridium, ruthenium, selenium, tellurium and sulphur.
In 2012, METALLOINVEST’s net income grew by 20.4% year-on-year to US$ 1.7 billion.
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Mr. Usmanov was born in 1953 in the town of Chust in the Namangan region of Uzbekistan, which was then part of the USSR . He graduated in 1976 from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, a leading Russian university, with a degree in international law . In 1997, he received a degree in banking from the Finance Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation. He is fluent in English, French, Russian and Uzbek.
Mr. Usmanov has played a number of key roles in businesses essential for the advancement of the Russian economy. Since February 2006, he has been a member of the Board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and currently heads its Committee for Updating of Control and Supervision and Elimination of Administrative Barriers. Mr. Usmanov has served as General Director of Gazprom Investholding since 2000 , prior to which he was as an Advisor to the Chairman of Gazprom and was First Deputy General Director of Gazprom Investholding. From 1994 to 1998 , Mr. Usmanov held the position of General Director of Interfin Investment and Finance Company. From 1995 to 1997 , he served as the First Deputy Chairman of MAPO-Bank , and from 1994 to 1995 , he was an Advisor to the General Director of Moscow Aviation Industrial Enterprise . From 1990 to 1994 , Mr. Usmanov worked as the Deputy General Director of Intercross JSC .
Mr. Usmanov is the President of the International Fencing Federation and a member of the councils of the 2014 Sochi XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games, the 2013 Kazan XXVII Summer Universiade and the Russian Olympian Sportsmen Support Fund. He is a Trustee for a range of social, educational and cultural organisations, including the Russian Geographical Society, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, National Research University Higher School of Economics, and European University at St. Petersburg.
Mr. Usmanov is the founder of the Arts, Science and Sports Charity Foundation.
In 2013, Mr. Usmanov was awarded the Order for Service to the Fatherland IV class in recognition of his services to the state, as well as his community and charitable activities. In 2004, he was presented with the Order of Honour of the Russian Federation for his contribution to business and charity.
In 2011, he received the Order of Friendship of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Alongside his investments within USM Holdings , Mr. Usmanov owns Kommersant Holding , the leading Russian business media group , as well as almost 30% of Arsenal , an English football club.
China has monopolized the smartphone market leadership role for 12 months in the major markets that were previously considered leading: the US, Australia, Brazil, the UK (GB), Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
In consolidating Mr. Usmanov’s interests into one company, USM Holdings has the right structure to enable the sharing of both intellectual and financial capital amongst its various businesses. The group’s companies benefit from a global network of relationships and a wealth of experience, which enable them to access international investment opportunities. Through its structure, reporting and transparency, USM Holdings aims to ensure that its companies adhere to the highest international standards of corporate governance.
In carrying out its operations, USM Holdings acts in a socially responsible way, investing in long-term sustainable enterprises, stimulating economic development and creating employment opportunities in Russia. The group cares about the communities in which it conducts its business, and supports them through a wide range of social projects in the fields of education, sports, arts, science and ecology.
It is also noteworthy that in China, Apple's share was only 6%, compared to 23. 7% in the old leading markets. We are witnesses, according to a recent Reuters video report from Hong Kong (you can also watch this report in this article, as well as a detailed explanation below):
Alisher Usmanov, Russia’s richest man, and two of his long-time billionaire investment partners have joined all of their assets in USM Holdings, a limited liability company based in the British Virgin Islands.
Conceived in early 2012 and completed in December, the new formation holds the trio’s assets in mining, technology, telecommunications and media, and carries a value of more than $29 billion , according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“We have completed the process of consolidating assets into USM Holdings,” Usmanov, 59, said by e-mail Feb. 5. “The formation of a single holding company enables us to optimize business processes, enhance the efficiency of managing subsidiary companies, and provide more opportunities to access international capital markets.”
According to the company’s website, which went live late last month, USM was established to consolidate the holdings Usmanov has built up during the last 30 years, including closely held Metalloinvest Holding Co., Russia’s largest iron ore producer, publicly-traded mobile phone company MegaFon OAO and Internet company Mail.Ru Group Ltd., as well as the technology investments he has made through the DST investment funds .
USM shareholders include Usmanov, who holds 60 percent; Vladimir Skoch , who holds 30 percent on behalf of his son , Russian Duma deputy Andrey Skoch ; and Ardavan Farhad Moshiri, an Usmanov adviser of 23 years, who owns 10 percent.
Usmanov and Moshiri continue to hold their shared 29.9 percent stake in London-based Arsenal Football Club Plc separately. Usmanov owns all of newspaper Kommersant outside of USM.
‘One Roof’
Usmanov controls all of USM’s voting rights and also has the ability to block his partners from selling any assets it holds without his consent. He first disclosed his plans for the holding company in April 2012, and released further details of its formation in MegaFon’s preliminary prospectus, which was released in November.
Ivan Streshinskiy, who has helped manage Usmanov’s investments since 2006, was appointed to the USM Holdings board and named chief executive officer of USM Advisors, an affiliated company that will provide advisory services to the holding entity.
“Having all of the assets under one roof makes it easier to manage them and value them,” Kirill Chuyko, head of equity research at BCS Financial Group said by phone Jan. 21, explaining the possible reasons for structure.
Longtime Allies
The two minority partners acquired their stakes in USM by swapping their existing equity in holding companies controlled by Usmanov and making a cash investment. After the transaction, Usmanov has a net worth of $21.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, while Moshiri controls a $1.7 billion fortune. Skoch is valued at $6.2 billion.
Rollo Head, a spokesman for Moshiri at London-based RLM Finsbury, said Moshiri declined to comment on his net worth. Albert Istomin, a spokesman for Skoch, declined to comment on the net worth calculation. Usmanov also declined to comment.
Usmanov first met Andrey Skoch in 1992 , when he was importing cigarettes to Russia and Skoch was working as an oil trader. At the time, the country was suffering from a deficit of consumer goods, which enabled Usmanov to build a thriving trade business.
He and Skoch purchased metal and mining assets during and after the country’s chaotic privatization years , including a steel plant in the Belgorod region, central Russia, and iron ore producer Lebedinsky GOK. In 2006 , after buying Mikhailovsky GOK from Georgia’s current prime minister, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, they created Metalloinvest , now Usmanov’s most valuable asset.
Government Ally
Usmanov’s rise to prominence was boosted in the early 2000s, when he proved to be an ally to the new government led by Russian President Vladimir Putin. As head of Gazprominvestholding , the investment arm of Russia’s gas monopoly OAO Gazprom, Usmanov helped negotiate the return of assets to state-run Gazprom that had been moved out of the company under previous management .
In 1999, Skoch was elected as a deputy of the State Duma, Russia’s main legislative body, representing the Belgorod region. He later transferred the fortune he had built to his father, Vladimir, shielding himself from public criticism . He was re-elected to the Duma four times.
Iranian Emigrant
Moshiri, an Iranian emigrate to London who now resides in Monaco, first met Usmanov in 1989, and has served as Usmanov’s financial consultant ever since. Through the years, he earned shares in some of Usmanov’s most important assets, including Metalloinvest, MegaFon and Arsenal.
The former accountant, who is a British citizen, resisted Usmanov’s diversification into technology investments, which began in 2008, using billionaire Yuri Milner’s DST funds.
“Moshiri also didn’t believe in the prospects for investments in Facebook and Groupon,” said Usmanov in an April 2012 phone interview with Bloomberg News.
His hesitation did not prevent Usmanov from allowing him the chance to participate, which has given Moshiri holdings through DST in publicly-traded Facebook Inc., Zynga Inc. and Groupon Inc., as well as other investments in a number of closely-held technology companies, including Twitter Inc.
USM did not disclose how much Moshiri and Skoch may have paid to make those investments, or their exact stakes.
New Valuation
The new holding company requires a revised method for the Bloomberg ranking to calculate the net worth for Usmanov and Moshiri, and established a valuation for Skoch’s fortune.
Prior to the transaction, Usmanov and Moshiri controlled half of Metalloinvest through Cyprus-based Gallagher Holdings Ltd ., which has since been renamed USM Steel & Mining Group Ltd. That stake was combined with the 30 percent held by Skoch . The remaining 20 percent of Metalloinvest was bought back by the company from Moscow-based OAO VTB Bank at the end of 2012 through debt financing, consolidating all of the company under the control of USM.
Further details on the debt financing will be provided when Metalloinvest releases its earnings in April, the company said.
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When Alisher Usmanov met Lloyd Blankfein on the sidelines of the St Petersburg Economic Forum in June, the two men appeared to strike up a rapport. The Uzbek-born billionaire and the chairman of Goldman Sachs discussed the planned initial public offering of Megafon, the mobile phone company owned by Mr Usmanov, say people familiar with the conversation. Mr Blankfein courted Mr Usmanov, one of Russia’s most powerful and best-connected businessmen, for an insight into upcoming deals.
Within months, everything had changed. By early October, Goldman had dropped Mr Usmanov and the Megafon deal, throwing a spanner in the company’s IPO plans and launching a storm of bad publicity around Mr Usmanov personally.
Goldman declined to comment on its reasons for quitting the IPO. Morgan Stanley, Sberbank, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and VTB are still working on the deal, which began formal marketing on Thursday after receiving delayed approval from the UK regulator, which appeared to have been shaken by Goldman’s exit.
Should the deal, which could raise as much as $2.1bn, go through, it would be the biggest flotation by a Russian company in nearly three years. If it flops, it will be another setback for Mr Usmanov, a symbol of a class of powerful Russian businessmen who work closely with the state, and his plans to take his empire public.
Businessmen close to the 59-year-old oligarch say he was dumbstruck by Goldman’s move. In his world, loyalty and predictability are prized above all else, and it is partly because of his strict adherence to such a code that he has risen so far in the Russia of President Vladimir Putin.
Today’s oligarchs are not the brash, buccaneering variety of the 1990s, who wielded both wealth and influence in Boris Yeltsin’s Kremlin. Putin-era billionaires such as Mr Usmanov are expected to respect state power in order to thrive.
It was in this context that Mr Usmanov – worth $18bn, according to Forbes – bought the art estate of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and then donated it to the state. It was also for that reason, analysts say, that he agreed to take a stake in Megafon, interceding in a years-long shareholder feud that was damaging Russia’s investment climate.
“ Usmanov is known as a person able to resolve delicate situations to the satisfaction of all the parties ,” says Ivan Streshinsky, a long-time associate.
That is not all he is known for. The 45 pages of Megafon’s IPO investor prospectus entitled “Risk factors” includes “media speculation” about Mr Usmanov’s alleged mafia ties and the six years he spent in an Uzbek jail in the 1980s, along with more media speculation that the real owner of a large share in Megafon might be Leonid Reiman , a former communications minister .
This week it also emerged that a public relations firm had tampered with Mr Usmanov’s Wikipedia page to remove mention of an incident in which the billionaire had allegedly threatened bloggers who repeated allegations that he was a “gangster and racketeer”, and also edited out mentions of his jail term .
Mr Usmanov and his partners deny issuing such threats , deny having any ties to organised crime groups , and he and Megafon’s management deny Mr Reiman is a shareholder . Andrei Skoch, a long-time friend and business partner, blames Mr Usmanov’s fraud conviction in 1980 on enemies of his father, a local Uzbek prosecutor . The criminal charges were overturned in 2000 .
The criminal conviction did dash Mr Usmanov’s dreams of a career as a diplomat moving between the world’s capitals, an ambition forged in a remote corner of central Asia in his native Uzbekistan, where he was born in 1953 in the small city of Chust, a place renowned as home of the traditional Uzbek skullcap.
Once out of jail Mr Usmanov built up a number of small businesses before consolidating some of Russia’s biggest metal and steel holdings into holding company Metalloinvest in 2006. Since then he has expanded outside Russia: acquiring stakes in internet groups such as Facebook and Groupon, and buying properties and trophy sporting assets in London as well as some of Russia’s most prestigious media properties.
Some international ventures have been less than happy. At Arsenal , the English Premier League football club in which he holds a near 30 per cent stake, he has waged a running battle with the board, criticising strategy and complaining that the best players have been let go .
Football is one of his passions, along with opera, ballet and fencing.
His approach to business involves close attention to detail . Despite poor eyesight, he is said to read up to 300 pages of analytics, reports and news items a day that are tirelessly rewritten into Russian by a retained group of round-the-clock translators.
Close links to the Kremlin have not harmed his prospects, say analysts. In 2009, at the height of the financial crisis, Metalloinvest received Rb61bn in bailout loans from state bank VTB, allowing Mr Usmanov not only to emerge from the crisis unscathed but also in the same year to spend $200m on a 2 per cent stake in Facebook through Digital Sky Technologies , a company in which he is a shareholder.
Associates say any political connections are normal. “With the scale and size of his business it would be misleading to say he has no relationship with the authorities – just like any major business leader in the world,” says Mr Streshinsky.
But Mr Usmanov’s political allegiances came under scrutiny last year when he fired two executives at his news weekly Kommersant Vlast because of a cover, published at the peak of mass anti-government protests in Moscow, that featured an obscene comment about Mr Putin .
Critics saw this as trampling on editorial freedom. Friends say he acted for reasons of taste. “He’s an old-fashioned guy. This overstepped the bounds of decency,” says Mr Streshinsky. “This has nothing to do with freedom of speech”.
The ‘Facebook Corruption’ accusations via a U.S. Congress Representative:
The low priced, Android based smartphones of China will change the global market
For example, the best phone based on the MediaTek MT6577, both from a technology standpoint and a cost standpoint, is thought to be the JiaYu G3, with IPS Gorilla Glass 2 4, 5-inch screen, etc., for $154 in China (direct from the factory) and $183 in China (13 September 2012).
Rumors
- Spreadtrum's low-cost SoC will recapture the original value mobile phone/terminal market in the second half of 2012 [July 26th - August 16th, 2012] - MediaTek MT6575 controversy escalates with announcement of MT6577 - Updated: MT6588/83 to be resold?
Early 2013
promise
{Please be aware}.
Local brands in China have made upgrades to the specifications of their entry-level smartphones for the CNY1,000-1,500 (US$158-237) segment making dual-core 1GHz processors and 4-inch displays the industry standards, according to industry sources.
Prices of the previous mainstream models with single-core CPUs and displays below 4-inch sizes for the CNY1,000 segment in the first half of 2012 are now expected to drop to CNY500-800, the sources added.
China Unicom has led the purchase of the upgraded dual-core, 4-inch display smartphones recently, and its suppliers are all China-based vendors including Huawei Technologies, ZTE, Lenovo, Coolpad, TCL, Hisense, K-Touch and Wanlida, the sources revealed, adding that those makers will source chipset solutions from Qualcomm or MediaTek.
First-tier international players did not participate in China Unicom’s procurement on concerns of pricing and hardware specifications, the source asserted.
However, the pace of hardware upgrading may start slowing down as telecom companies in China are mulling reducing their subsidies to smartphone subscribers, while smartphone makers are also trying to maintain their profit margins, commented the sources.
The next round of competition will shift from hardware to software including product design, user’s interface and also smart audio recognition, the sources noted.
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This indicator was up 22. 5% from the previous quarter and 127. 1% from the same period in 2011.
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See: Kantar: Windows Phone has overtaken RIM Market Share in USA, “Key 8 Countries” [WMPoweruser, Sept 3, 2012]
This is 1% lower than the previous quarter and 2% lower than the same period in 2011.
Remark: iPads and other tablets are included here as well!
Relative to all that China is a quite different story:
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OS-specific forecasts for mobile phones and tablets show different fates [Kanalys Press Release, September 10, 2012] - China and Android dominate mobile phones, while the US and Apple dominate tablets
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Price levels of mobile phones in China
Q1 - 2010
Q1 - 2012
Shanghai, Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading – Canalys published its final Q2 2012 country-level shipment estimates to clients yesterday. Results show that China saw phenomenal growth of 199% year-on-year and 32% over the previous quarter. In total, more than 42 million smart phones were shipped into the channel in China in Q2 2012 , representing the second consecutive quarter of record breaking volumes in a single country market. China accounted for 27% of the 158 million global smart phone shipments, compared to 16% for the United States .
Notably, growth in China was heavily driven by domestic vendors , while international vendors struggled to keep pace.
While Samsung maintained its overall leadership position in China with a 17% market share, this reduced sequentially as volumes were flat and as several local vendors closed the gap. ZTE, Lenovo and Huawei were the second-, third- and fourth-placed vendors, ahead of Apple , making up a third of the market. They achieved growth of 171%, 2,665% and 252% year-on-year respectively. Collectively, domestic Chinese vendors shipped 25.6 million units , representing a growth of 518% and 60% of the market . By comparison, international vendors grew by a more modest 67% to 16.7 million units . Apple fell to fifth place in China . While its shipments were up 102% year-on-year, they were down 37% compared to Q1 2012 .
‘The rise of the domestic tier-one brands has been aided by a number of factors. Their reactiveness to market demands and deep understanding of local consumer behavior and preferences have been key in helping them surpass international peers in the fast-evolving Chinese market. Local tier-one vendors have worked hard in recent quarters to greatly improve their brand resonance among consumers and to expand and enhance their relationships and influence within operators,’ said Canalys Research Director for China, Nicole Peng. ‘But the tier-two vendors — the likes of Oppo , K-Touch and Gionee — have also stamped their mark , boosting smart phone shipments into tier-three and tier-four cities, predominantly through the open channels . As feature phone vendors, they already have established partnerships and strong brand awareness. These domestic vendors are making significant progress transitioning their portfolios and customer bases to be more focused on smart phones.’
Nokia and Motorola both lost significant ground in China , with Nokia’s volumes down 47% on Q2 2011. ‘Among the international vendors, only HTC managed an outstanding performance in mainland China . Its shipments grew 389% year-on-year to reach 1.8 million units for the quarter ,’ said Jessica Kwee, Canalys Research Analyst. ‘Its success this quarter is heavily based on the strong performance of Desire V series devices, designed with the local China market in mind , underscoring the importance of tailoring propositions to local consumer preferences.’
Android has become a major growth driver in China, running on 81% of the smart phones shipped in China in Q2 2012.
On a global basis, Android continued to grow in significance, surpassing 100 million quarterly smart phone shipments for the first time and reaching two-thirds share of the market . ‘Growth in Android volumes of 110% far outpaced growth in the overall market of 47% year-on-year, heavily driven by Samsung, which saw Android volumes of over 45 million, contributed to by a full and broad portfolio of products, from its high-end flagship Galaxy S III down to its aggressively priced Galaxy Y and Galaxy Mini. Its sponsorship of the London Olympics and subsequent product placements are sure to attract new customers to ensure that Q3 delivers a strong performance,’ commented Pete Cunningham, Canalys Principal Analyst.
Samsung retained its gold medal position in the global smart phone market with a 31% share, followed by Apple and Nokia once again . Huawei and ZTE were unable to push in on the global top five with shipments of their own branded devices. HTC moved up to fourth place , though, just ahead of RIM , which shipped 8.5 million units in the calendar quarter.
Analyst contacts
To speak with any analyst quoted in this release, please contact the appropriate Canalys office: Nicole Peng, Jessica Kwee (Canalys APAC), Pete Cunningham (Canalys EMEA). Alternatively, you can speak with other members of Canalys’ global team of mobile analysts: Chris Jones (Canalys Americas), Rachel Lashford (Canalys APAC), Tim Shepherd (Canalys EMEA).
About Canalys
Canalys is an independent analyst firm that strives to guide clients on the future of the technology industry and to think beyond the business models of the past. We deliver smart market insights to IT, channel and service provider professionals around the world. Our customer-driven analysis and consulting services empower businesses to make informed decisions and generate sales. We stake our reputation on the quality of our data, our innovative use of technology, and our high level of customer service.
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Shanghai, Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading – The latest product announcements by leading smart phone and pad vendors will help drive consumer demand to new heights, according to Canalys. It forecasts that in 2016 , global annual smart phone shipments will be around 1.2 billion units , meaning a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 19.5%. It predicts pad shipments in the same year will hit 207 million – a CAGR of 26.8%.
Apple’s latest unveiling is attracting extraordinary interest and competitors have also made several major announcements in the past week, including Windows 8 devices from Nokia and Samsung; new Android smart phones from Sony, Motorola and Samsung; and Amazon’s enhanced Kindle Fire pads. With these big vendors attracting the headlines, Canalys has issued a timely reminder that the trends across pads and smart phones in various countries will be markedly different.
In smart phones , Canalys expects Asia Pacific to remain the largest region by volume, with annual shipments reaching 594 million by 2016 . China will account for almost half of all shipments in the region and nearly a quarter of the world’s smart phones in 2016 . This equates to only 10 million less than is forecast to ship in the whole of the Americas in that year.
Canalys managing director for Mobile and APAC, Rachel Lashford, said, ‘The latest, in-depth research for our dedicated Smart Phone Analysis China service reveals there will be a substantial increase in the number of first-time smart phone users in China over the next 12 months , while feature phone shipments will continue to decline. Smart phone sales will move beyond tier-one and tier-two cities.’
China’s domestic feature phone vendors are rapidly moving their businesses to smart phones, supported by low-cost solutions from chipset providers, such as MediaTek, Spreadtrum and Qualcomm’s QRD.
‘We anticipate strong demand from local Chinese vendors selling in both operator and open channels,’ said Nicole Peng, Canalys Research Director for China. ‘Chipset vendors are reporting growing momentum in 2.5G (EDGE) smart phone solutions. For less developed areas where 3G coverage is limited, 2.5G smart phones have advantages in cost and battery life. They are becoming popular with consumers, especially where prices are already close to those of feature phones (around RMB500, US$78). The tier-three and tier-four cities are feature phone vendors’ traditional strongholds. Local vendors will use their long-standing relationships with open channels and their established infrastructure to distribute smart phones, with or without operator subsidies, over the next few years.’
In terms of percentage growth , Canalys expects Latin America to move fastest , with a CAGR to 2016 of 27.3%. It forecasts good double-digit growth in all countries, but Brazil and Mexico will account for more than half of all shipments in the region.
Globally , Canalys expects Android to remain dominant, with 57% of the smart phones shipped in 2016 running the OS (up from 49% in 2011 ). It expects Apple’s share of this much larger market to remain similar to today, at around 18%. Microsoft is expected to make inroads over the coming years.
In the pad market, however, the OS picture will be quite different. Canalys expects Apple to take a little under half of the market in 2016. The plethora of Windows 8 pads that will be introduced over the next few years are predicted to bring Microsoft’s share to around 17%. Competitively priced Android pads, such as Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire models will have an impact in terms of volumes, but Android’s share is forecast to remain relatively stable at 35%, unless vendors make radical improvements to the overall user experience. In contrast to smart phone market trends, the US is expected to dominate pad shipments, with the volume more than doubling to 88 million units in 2016. China is expected to be the second largest country market, with shipments of around 20 million.
‘Pads are the fastest growing consumer electronics products in history and are forecast to represent 29% of total PC shipments in 2016. But the market remains dominated by a single vendor. Other PC and smart phone vendors are currently finding it hard to weaken Apple’s position,’ said Canalys Analyst Tim Coulling. ‘The only product that most would consider a big hit is the Kindle Fire, brought to market by Amazon – an Internet retailer. Tight integration of hardware, software and services is a prerequisite for competing in the pad market, even at low price points, and fragmentation among other pad vendors’ offers helps Apple maintain its position.’
Analyst contacts
To speak with any analyst quoted in this release, please contact the appropriate Canalys office: Rachel Lashford, Nicole Peng (Canalys APAC), Tim Coulling (Canalys EMEA). Or contact another member of Canalys’ global analyst team: Chris Jones (Canalys Americas), Jessica Kwee, Pin-Chen Tang (Canalys APAC), Pete Cunningham, Tim Shepherd, Tom Evans (Canalys EMEA).
Universe
Easy views network hearing” easy views international: according to EnfoDesk easy views intellectual library industry database recently publishing of 2012 2nd quarter China phone terminal market monitoring report under displayed, 2 quarter, China smart phone terminal (does not containing parallel and cottage machine) market in the, Android Department sales accounted for than from Shang last quarter of 76.7% upgrade to this quarter of 82.8% , net 6.1%. While the Symbian sales percentage has continued to free fall to the ground from the parent 11.8% to 6% . In addition, iOS small callback to 6% .
2012Q2 OS smartphone market penetration in China (not including parallel and cottage)
2 quarter pick-up systems from Smartphone ( encyclopedia of Analysys : smartphones ) [ average smartphone ] price changes, Android from 1670 [ yuan i.e. US$263 ] last quarter , continuing down to the quarter of 1560 [ yuan i.e. US$246 ] ; 1320 [ yuan i.e. US$208 ] of Symbian from last quarter down to 1170 dollars [ yuan i.e. US$185 ] this quarter.
2012Q2 China Android and Symbian Smartphone price (not including parallel and cottage)
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“Analysys Web video” Analysys: at present, according to EnfoDesk Analysys think-tank on traditional retail markets of mobile phones (of the last quarter of 2012 quarterly monitoring mobile terminal market) data monitor display: Chinese smartphone market, Android system’s market share in handset sales rising 5 consecutive quarters.
Vulnerability analysis:
In the last quarter of 2012 China Mobile end-markets quarterly monitoring data show end of 2012 Q1, carrying Android in the Smartphone market system’s market share in the Smartphone Terminal 76.7%, 10% average quarterly market share gain. At the same time, as the Smartphone market continues to mature, carrying Android system average Smartphone prices are also way down to 1670 [ yuan i.e. US$263 from 2300 yuan i.e. US$363 a year earlier ] .
Combined with traditional mobile phone sales channels under the line status, EnfoDesk Analysys Research think-tank believes that mobile phone sales market share of Android system continue to enhance, benefit from its open source nature attract numerous manufacturers to participate in, and China in the past two years in the Smartphone market and 3G business increment. Through the performance of manufacturers on the market today as well as the impact of EnfoDesk Analysys think tank study says
1. Is now dominated by application of the formation of eco-systems, as well as the Android open source, attracting new industry participants, such as Internet companies to enter product prices are depressed, make the increasingly intense market competition environment, product prices are driven down, threats to traditional enterprise bargaining power in the channel.
2012Q1 China smartphone sales share
2. Fragmentation trends exacerbate the Android system. Traditional manufacturing enterprises to overcome the effects of homogenization of products of intelligent systems, secondary development on the Android system, causes the application to version adjusted accordingly, application developer development costs gradually increased.
Smartphone price quarterly changes of 2011Q1-2012Q1 Android system
3. Sales in this period dominated by domestic brands in the low-end products, intelligent products of these enterprises continue to 3G input costs on the production line. But at the same time, while veteran international brand market share continues to decline , it would shorten the product line, focusing its research and development production 4G products research and development. With the advent of 4G era, will reshuffle the mobile terminal market. (Analysys International)
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Related reading: 2011Q2 China’s massive increase in Android share Symbian tumble
… in 2 years the low-end has blown up …
| {space} | {space} | 1 500-3. 000 yuan [￥237-473] |
| ] | 24% | space} {space |
| 30, 8% | 16% | space} {space |
| China's View: Interviews in a video studio: China's Phone Bazaar [CCTV News - CNTV English, 3 September 2012]. | Partnership for the benefit of China's innovative, competitive and talented | Top 5 markets and market share (by volume) in 2011, 2012 and 2016 |
Source: Jefferies Research
State
Cynthia Meng, China/HK TMT Equity Research, Jefferies Hong Kong: [00:49] Next year it’s going to be about who is going to provide the best value for my money from a consumer point of view, from a telco point of view, because we think that hardware specifications for the handsets have already peaked . [01:03]
Narrator, xxx Gordon in Hong Kong: In other words the oversized screen and quadcore processors of your precious Samsung [Galaxy] S III will soon be standard and achieved in handsets in China. [01:13]
… commoditization of smartphones …
[02:11] A race to the bottom will present a major challenge for Apple and Samsung who put together have dominated the industry in the last couple of years. [02:19] If the China trends spread globally the shift to cheaper handsets will mean tighter margins and slower growth for this industry powerhouses and new opportunities for little known upstarts like Xiaomi. [02:26]
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Apple’s iPhone has been gaining a lot of traction in China recently. As Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call, greater China accounted for two-thirds of Apple’s revenue in the Asia-Pacific region during the period.
“In terms of iPhones in general in mainland China, we were incredibly pleased with our results,” Cook said. “We were up over 100 percent, year over year.”
That’s an impressive achievement. But Apple still has a lot of work to do in China before the iPhone claims the same levels of market penetration it enjoys in the U.S. In China, the iPhone has captured about 7.5 percent of the smartphone market, compared to rival Samsung, which has claimed more than 20 percent, according to IHS iSuppli. Despite its popularity in the country, the iPhone is still ranked seventh in the Chinese smartphone market.
Why? Two reasons. First, Apple doesn’t yet offer a truly low-end smartphone that appeals to price-conscious Chinese consumers. (To be clear, China Telecom is offering the iPhone fully subsidized, but it requires subscribers to sign a contract that ties them to a two-year $62 per month plan.) Second, and more importantly, the iPhone doesn’t yet support Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), China’s homegrown wireless standard. And until it does, China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless carrier, can’t offer it to its 688 million or so subscribers.
“Among all the international smartphone brands competing in China, Apple is the only one not offering a product that complies with the domestic TD-SCDMA air standard,” IHS iSuppli’s Kevin Wang said in a statement. “For Apple, this is a huge disadvantage, as TD-SCDMA represents the fastest-growing major air standard for smartphones in China, with shipments of compliant phones expected to rise by a factor of 10 from 2011 to 2016.”
In other words, if Apple wants access to the massive addressable market that China Mobile has to offer, it’s going to have to offer a lower-end iPhone variant designed specifically for TD-SCDMA, something it has been loath to do in the past, and hasn’t given any indication that it’s willing to do in the future. As Cook said during Apple’s last earnings call, the company feels that its business is strongest when it focuses on making the best products it can, not the most inexpensive ones.
“I firmly believe that people in the emerging markets want great products, like they do in developed markets,” Cook said. “And so we’re going to stick to our knitting and make the best products. And we think that if we do that, we’ve got a very, very good business ahead of us. So that’s what we are doing.”
Trica market 2011
At a time when China is set to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest smartphone market, little-known Chinese firms are prepared to battle it out for market dominance with the maker of the game-changing iPhone, Apple (AAPL). As per the predictions of IDC and Gartner, China’s smartphone shipments could hit 140 million this year, exceeding those in the United States.
There are a number of Chinese brands offering similar capabilities, nominally, as the iPhone at half the price, most of them using a forked version of Google’s (GOOG) Android. The names include ZTE Corp., Lenovo Group, and other small private firms like Xiaomi, Gionee, and Meizu Technology. Even cheaper smartphones are offered by Alibaba Group, Shanda Interactive, and Baidu (BIDU) for fewer than ¥1,000 (~$150 U.S.).
Xiaomi Technology, founded just two years ago, has emerged as a serious potential threat to the likes of Apple and Samsung in smartphone arena. According to its CEO, the company sold more than 3 million phones with revenues close to $1 billion for the first half of 2012. Its latest offering, a successor to its popular MiOne (MI) smartphone, the MI2, costs less than half the price of iPhone 4S, but exceeds its specifications. Xiaomi not only tries to mimic the iPhone’s specifications, but has also been able to charge fans ¥199 (~$31) to attend the Beijing launch of the phone, the same way as Apple followers would pay to see Steve Jobs showcasing new products. The Xiaomi conference was attended by more than 1,000 people, with the proceeds going to charity. The MI2, which is expected to hit the markets in October, will have quad-core Qualcomm (QCOM) S4 Pro SoC, an 8 mega-pixel camera, and a voice-assistant similar to Apple’s Siri, and is priced at ¥1,999 ($310). This is no cheap knock-off, but rather a serious piece of hardware packed with the latest technology.
The fascinating part of Android’s rise here is that Microsoft (MSFT) will likely see more profit from many of these phones than Google will due to the licensing agreements many of them have made to avoid patent issues with Redmond. Reports are spotty, but Microsoft collects anywhere from $5 to $15 per Android license and has deals with at least half of the phones sold. Moreover, it is very possible it makes more money than Google does.
In the coming years it is expected that Apple’s market share may flatten out or even dip, as it has this year, but market share is not Apple’s goal; it has always been about margins — selling a premium product at extremely high margins to those with the resources to not care about the upfront cost. Estimates from IDC place the sub-$200 smartphone at 40% of the shipments, while devices costing more than $700 made up 11% of the market, which is where Apple plays and why it still controls most of the profits generated by the industry. China and India make up 40% of new smartphone activations.
This huge difference in shipments is mainly due to the limited purchasing power of an average Chinese person , which is around ¥800-¥1,500 ($130-$240) . By contrast, the iPhone comes with a price tag of around $800, the equivalent of two months of earnings of an urban Chinese person (in an area that has around 670 million people).
According to a report from Gartner , Apple’s market share by volume has been sliding and iOS‘ share of the mobile operating system space is expected to slip to third place by 2016 below Android and Windows Phone. The Gartner report is, however, very controversial as Windows Phone has not proven anything to this point, although Nokia’s (NOK) sales of its Lumia 610 and Asha line of proto-smartphones are keeping its brand alive while it searches for the killer phone. Even in its second-largest market, iPhone sales slipped for the April-June quarter due to inventory adjustments after the huge launch of the iPhone 4S.
Apart from these estimates, Apple also suffers on various fronts in China. The iPhone is backed by China Telecom and China Unicom, but the country’s and the world’s leading telco China Mobile (with about 655 million subscribers) has still not supported it. Apple and China Mobile are still working on the details of China Mobile’s implementation of CDMA, which requires Apple to build a specific phone for its network.
Responding to the competition and the difference between the iPhone and the local offerings, Apple recently slashed the price of the iPhone 3GS below $200 . While an entry-level Apple phone is something that the market will absorb, part of Apple’s appeal is the status it confers and a 3GS simply not a strong enough status symbol to drive sales. Mix in that with Chinese preferences for buying from Chinese companies and this market becomes a whole lot harder for Apple to maintain not its sales per se — it can manipulate prices to maintain sales — but its extreme margins. The latest earnings call highlighted this as it sold a lot of lower-end iPads and iPhones in Asia, which pushed its results and future guidance under 40% net margins.
Companies like Lenovo, ZTE, and Huawei are gaining because they are Chinese and are providing good products at reasonable prices. Lenovo, in particular, is pushing its smartphone and PC strategy both up and down the value chain, similar to Samsung’s approach. It is working very well for Lenovo, whose revenues were up 40% in the second quarter when everyone else was complaining of softening business.
Apple’s problems are the standard problems for a company on top of the world; everyone will nibble away at it in various little ways. How it responds to this is key.
The recent lawsuit victory over Samsung and its pressing of the legal attack smacks of a company that is frightened. Why should it fear Samsung? And if it doesn’t, why did it go after Samsung and restrict consumer choice, a clear breach of its branding compact with its fans? Is it trying to push Samsung into Windows 8 Phone’s arms? All of these things point to further margin erosion for Apple and a slowing of its titanic growth without a new market to push into. As things stand now, staking a new position in Apple requires believing none of these issues matter.
It points to Apple becoming a value trap at some point in the future . Not every country, especially China, will grant Apple an injunction against knockoff competition; quite the opposite is true. Many investors are sitting on capital gains so large they can’t sell, and the dividend will pay them well enough to stay in even if the price goes nowhere . But new investors should be very careful in light of the market dynamics .
BEIJING (AP) — Microsoft Corp. will hire more than 1,000 additional employees in China this year and boost research and development spending by 15 percent as it tries to catch up with Apple and Google in the fast-growing mobile Internet market, executives said Thursday.
The announcement adds to intensifying competition in wireless Internet in China, where nearly 400 million people surf the Web using mobile phones and other devices. Microsoft is promoting its Windows 8 mobile operating system but came late to the market and trails Apple Inc. and Google Inc. , whose Android system is widely used in China.
“We respect that we have two players in the market which have a strong role , and we feel ready to attack and have different offers to basically change the game plan on that one,” said Microsoft’s CEO for China, Ralph Haupter, at a news conference .
The new employees will be in addition to Microsoft’s workforce of 4,500 in China and will be spread across research and development, marketing and customer service, Haupter said.
Research spending in China will rise by 15 percent over last year’s $500 million, according to another executive, Ya-Qin Zhang, Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific chairman for research and development. He said the current research staff of 3,000 would be expanded by about 15 percent.
Global technology companies and local rivals are spending heavily to gain a foothold in mobile Internet in the world’s most populous online market as Chinese users shift quickly to the new technology.
This week, Chinese search engine Baidu Inc. released its own new mobile browser to compete with Google and Apple and announced it will open a cloud computing center.
China had 538 million people online at the end of July, up 11 percent from a year earlier, according to the China Internet Network Information Center, an industry group. The share that uses wireless devices grew twice as fast, rising 22 percent to 388 million, or 70 percent of the total.
Android dominates the Chinese smartphone market , used on 76.7 percent of phones in the second first quarter of this year, according to Analysys International , a research firm. Apple’s iPhone dominates the higher end of the market.
Microsoft plans to recruit more local partners to develop mobile applications specifically for China, said Haupter. He said the company believes it has an advantage in doing that because developers can draw on their experience working on other Microsoft products.
Zhang said Microsoft’s six development centers in China that now spend about 80 percent of their time working on products for global markets will focus more on creating offerings tailored to Chinese customers.
Microsoft also plans to expand its cloud computing business in China, the executives said. Zhang said about 100,000 commercial customers now use its private cloud computing service and a service for use by the public is being developed.
… Ralph Haupter , currently serving as area vice president (AVP) for Microsoft Germany, has been promoted to corporate vice president and named CEO for Microsoft GCR . Haupter is replacing Simon Leung who has decided to leave Microsoft for personal and family reasons. Gordon Frazer , currently serving as managing director (MD) for Microsoft U.K., has been named chief operating officer (COO) for Microsoft GCR . He is replacing Michel van der Bel, who will assume the role of MD for Microsoft U.K. Haupter and van der Bel will report to Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, and Frazer will report to Haupter. …
Haupter is a seven-year veteran of Microsoft, having delivered excellent and sustainable results in growth and profitability and repeatedly proving his ability to build and grow high-performing, diverse organizations. He previously served as head of the partner division for Europe, Middle East and Africa and general manager (GM) of Microsoft’s Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners Group for Western Europe, both based in Paris, and served as COO for Microsoft Germany before becoming the German AVP. Before that, he worked for IBM both in Germany and internationally .
Frazer is a 16-year veteran of Microsoft, having served as the GM for Microsoft South Africa for four years and most recently as the Microsoft U.K. MD for the past six years. He brings a tremendous amount of operational expertise to the Microsoft GCR team from his various roles across both developed and emerging markets. His leadership in managing the full breadth and depth of Microsoft’s business in the U.K. will serve as a strong asset in helping take Microsoft China’s operations to the next level of efficiency and growth.
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New leadership team in Greater China (third from left is the COO Gordon Frazer and the fourth is the CEO Ralph Haupter)
September 6, 2012, Beijing – Microsoft China today announced its new strategy and commitment to partnering with the country for an innovative, competitive and talented China by further enhancing and accelerating investments. In the new fiscal year, Microsoft will recruit more than 1,000 staff in China, 50% of which will be college graduates. Microsoft’s annual R&D investment will exceed $500 million, and the company will explore local markets in more provinces and deepen its engagement in industrial informatization.
Over two decades of growth, Microsoft China has continued to penetrate deeply into increasingly important local markets. Ralph Haupter, Corporate Vice President, Chairman & CEO Microsoft Greater China Region , said: “Since entering China 20 years ago, Microsoft has grown steadily in China and acquired a deeper understanding of the Chinese market. Our new strategy reflects our perception, emphasis and commitment to the China market. In this new era, China and the entire Greater China Region will become the source of global innovations. Through comprehensive devices and services combined with cloud computing , Microsoft is working closely with the Chinese government, partners, customers and the academic world, entering this new era by leveraging our advantages.”
Haupter stressed that this year is a big year for Microsoft, with the introduction of many new products and technologies, and also a year where Microsoft China is making a great effort to further develop the market. “Our new leadership team in Greater China has helped develop a new strategy for customers and partners, deepening cooperation with governments of all levels to strengthen innovation in China. The team will popularize new technologies and explore new markets,” Haupter said.
Through continuous investment of innovation resources and improving the scale of partnerships in China over the years, Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group has become Microsoft’s largest R&D base outside of the United States, with the most complete functions and innovation chain covering basic research, technology incubation, product R&D and industry cooperation. Chinese R&D teams have made great contributions to Microsoft products launched this year, such as Windows Server2012, Windows 8, New Office, SQL Server 2012 and Surface. Ya-Qin Zhang, Corporate Vice President and Chairman of Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group, said: “We are lucky to be in an era where globalization is deepening, the IT revolution is emerging and China is rising. Microsoft’s continuous exploration in natural human-machine interfaces, mobile Internet and cloud computing will help us win the future and contribute to China’s sustainable development.”
Samuel Shen, COO of Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group, said Microsoft’s software outsourcing business was now worth more than $200 million per year. In the future, Microsoft will continue to work closely with local communities through programs such as the Internet of Things, Big Data, cloud computing, cloud-based smart cities and the Microsoft Accelerator for Cloud Computing, accelerating the vision of “Innovation in China, Innovation for the World”
According to Microsoft’s new strategy in China, Microsoft is committed to cooperating with the Chinese government and industry, aligning with China’s priorities and partnering for an Innovative, Competitive, and Talented China. Gordon Frazer, Vice President and COO of Microsoft Greater China Region, said that over the next five years, Microsoft China will expand its footprint in China, deepen cooperation with governments of all levels and partners, improve customer support and foster talents on a broad scale:
Expand Microsoft’s footprint in local markets: Over the next five years, Microsoft will expand its presence in over 20 cities across 15 provinces by expanding local teams, enhancing local management, working closely with local governments, making contributions to local informatization, building cloud-based smart cities, and providing cloud-based solutions for e-government, city management and citizen services.
Accelerate local partner ecosystems and expand service coverage: Microsoft will deepen customer services, deliver joint services and solutions with partners, and engage in further convergence of informatization and industry upgrading to improve the core competency of Chinese enterprises. By the end of this year, Microsoft will set up its second technical support center in China to enhance support for Chinese customers and partners, share best practices and knowledge of supporting global customers to help them accelerate the adoption of new technologies and share with them the experience of providing cloud services to customers in Asia. Microsoft will also drive partners’ development through many forms: system-grade innovation support for OEMs, software engineering assistance for software outsourcing companies and innovative design references for hardware manufacturers.
Foster talents in a large scale: Over the next five years, Microsoft will hire more talent in China to better serve and support its partners in China, foster talents for the Chinese software industry and improve the skills of Chinese youths.
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Established in , Alibaba Cloud (irond.info) is the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group. It offers a. having to make hard choices about its limited resources. Two people close to Alibaba's cloud unit said the company had stopped taking on. Group at our Xixi campus, Cloud Valley, and Ant Space. We shared our Alibaba Cloud Boosts Digital Imaging Experience in Asian Tourism We are.
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