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Doug Young

IPOs: Pinduoduo Provides Fresh Face for E-Commerce

Doug Young 07月02日

财新传媒英文部编辑

Bottom line: A new IPO by e-commerce company Pingduoduo could do reasonably well due to its rapid growth and unusual business model, but could suffer from a "flavor of the day" element over the longer term.

After years of basically having just two choices to invest in China's e-commerce market, investors will soon have another new and interesting option with the upcoming listing of a company called Pinduoduo. I'll admit that I was unfamiliar with Pinduoduo before reading about this upcoming l...

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Doug Young

Bottom line: Alibaba's purchase of Ele.me and Tencent-backed Meituan's purchase of Mobike underscore the growing rivalry between Alibaba and Tencent, as each uses its deep pockets to try and dominate money-losing emerging sectors.

Trade wars are making all the big headlines these days in US-China news, forcing a couple of mega-mergers that would normally be front-page news into the back pages. Each of the latest deals is quite significant for China's Internet, as both quietly underscore the i...

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Doug Young

Bottom line: Didi's foray into takeout delivery and Meituan's into private car services look like moves of desperation to make the companies more attractive as they get pressured to make IPOs by the end of next year.

Two of China's biggest unlisted internet companies are in the headlines as the week winds down, each taking a shot at the other's turf. One headline has the Uber-like Didi Chuxing hiring in preparation to launch a takeout dining service like the one operated by Meituan-Dianping. ...

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Doug Young

Bottom line: Meituan's move into shared car services is likely to reignite a price war with incumbent Didi, and could be aimed at generating excitement ahead of a mega-IPO later this year. 

Meituan entering shared cars

Just days after reports emerged that car-sharing giant Didi Chuxing would pedal into the shared bike market, new reports are saying that group buying giant Meituan-Dianping is driving into Didi's own shared car services space. These two stories underscore ...

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Doug Young

INTERNET: Baidu Spits Out Takeout Dining Service

Doug Young 08月22日

财新传媒英文部编辑

Bottom line: Baidu could announce a sale of its takeout dining unit to Ele.me by the end of the month, in a smart exit that will leave the industry with two major players and could result in a major write-off for Baidu.

Baidu takeout gets taken out

In a move that's been a long time coming, media are reporting that search giant Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is on the cusp of a deal to unload its aging takeout delivery service to rival Ele.me, in a deal that would essentially wh...

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Doug Young

Bottom line: Alibaba could take control of Ele.me after the latter's latest fund-raising, and then make a bid for Baidu's take-out dining service, leaving just two major players in the sector as it nears a more sustainable state.

Alibaba set to swallow Ele.me?

The take-out dining wars have taken another interesting twist, with word that one of the oldest players, Ele.me, is on the cusp of raising a fresh $1 billion in new funds. What's interesting about this latest fund ...

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Doug Young

Bottom line: Yum's purchase of a high-end take-out delivery service looks smart in targeting a higher margin, niche product in the competitive space, while McDonald's and Starbuck's rapid growth in mobile payments reflects rapid growth of the technology.

Yum buys take-out specialist Sherpa's

Three of the world's top restaurant chain operators are in the China headlines as we head into summer, in different moves that reflect their attempts to tap into the nation's growing...

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Doug Young

Bottom line: New anti-corruption moves at JD.com and Meituan-Dianping show the cleanup campaign is moving down to the grass-roots level, in a positive development that should help the companies as many seek to go abroad.

Meituan, JD.com in new anti-corruption snares

Anyone unfamiliar with China might find it peculiar and even worrisome that near simultaneous announcements appear to show problematic internal corruption at two of the nation's top Internet companies, e-comm...

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Doug Young

Bottom line: Alibaba's Koubei is unlikely to gain major traction despite its $1.1 billion in new funding, due to its late arrival to a crowded O2O take-out dining space already dominated by Baidu, Ele.me and Meituan-Dianping.

Koubei raises $1.1 billion

The longer I stay in China, the more the latest stories coming from the Internet sector look like I've seen them before. That's certainly the case with Koubei, the Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) online-to-offline (O2O) take-out dini...

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