Internet

TikTok is a winner in global viral challenge

8 Apr 2020

Millions of bored people are hooked on the video app for the latest dance moves and more. Owner ByteDance is getting a goldmine of user data and a bigger audience for a follow-up hit. But the unprecedented global success for a Chinese startup comes with uncharted risks.

China’s missing phone customers stir viral concern

2 Apr 2020

Some 20 mln of them mysteriously vanished from $150 bln China Mobile and its two biggest rivals in February. It may be the first time all three carriers lost subscribers at once. Theories range from the conspiratorial to the more plausible. None of them is reassuring, though.

The Exchange: Verizon’s HR chief

31 Mar 2020

Christy Pambianchi oversees the well-being of more than 100,000 people. She explains how Verizon quickly rewrote the rule book to address the coronavirus outbreak from getting people set up at home to ensuring the safety of field employees providing critical infrastructure.

Meituan Dianping delivers extra side of ESG

31 Mar 2020

The $58 bln Chinese takeaways-to-taxis company expects a rough first quarter after Covid-19 closed eateries and curbed travel. With the outlook hazy, Meituan instead directed investors to the aid it’s providing customers. The initiatives may be useful in a fight against Alibaba.

Chinese video-game deal is fight for extra life

26 Mar 2020

Tencent-backed iDreamSky wants to take over larger rival Leyou for $1.3 bln with CVC’s help. The suitor’s Nasdaq delisting and subsequent relisting in Hong Kong have not gone well, but owning the Warframe developer makes strategic sense. The financial logic is less compelling.

Corona Capital: Religious aid, Ad-spending slump

23 Mar 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: U.S. Vice President Mike Pence wants Americans to donate to religious institutions to bolster community aid. But churches have their own fiscal problems. Plus: TV ad revenue look set for a pounding.

Chinese travel site charts course out of virus fog

19 Mar 2020

As most of the world hunkers down in place, $12 bln Trip reckons it may be through the worst of it. First-quarter sales are expected to halve, but boss Jane Sun also sees a rebound at home where the epidemic may be ebbing. It offers a glimmer of hope in a sea of economic gloom.

Alibaba’s virus response is as much VC as ESG

13 Feb 2020

The Chinese e-commerce company is waiving merchant fees and slashing logistics costs. It’s just the sort of relief that local businesses need during a debilitating outbreak. And the startup-like use of cash-burning subsidies should help Alibaba keep customers and find new ones.

Naspers rejig only nibbles at Tencent discount

22 Jan 2020

The African tech group has sold $1.7 bln of shares in its Amsterdam spinoff Prosus, whose main asset is a $150 bln stake in the Chinese web giant. Using the funds to buy back stock has merit, but Naspers will have to be bolder if it wants to close the Dutch firm’s valuation gap.

Viewsroom: Jack Dorsey’s heroic year ahead

19 Dec 2019

From banning political ads to developing cryptocurrency plans, the CEO of Twitter and Square has been politically more astute than rivals like Facebook. That sets him up for a good 2020. Also: the different ways that shareholders, the Fed and M&A bankers will tackle climate risk.

Africa’s Alibaba looks more lemon than unicorn

19 Dec 2019

Jumia’s post-IPO limp could be life-threatening. The continent’s first billion-dollar tech firm has just enough cash to make it to 2021. But with losses widening due to high delivery costs and short-sellers questioning online transaction numbers, raising more money will be tough.

German listings breakup puts LBO shop in fast lane

18 Dec 2019

Hellman & Friedman paid 3 bln euros for the car sales division of classifieds group Scout24. It’s a rich price, but the unit’s racy growth means the buyout fund should make a healthy return. A higher exposure to risky property leaves the seller’s investors with a bumpier ride.

App stores are tech’s next Battle Royale

17 Dec 2019

Google and Apple collect enormous fees through their dominant online app stores. Those are coming under attack – Fortnite owner Epic Games is the latest to lob a grenade. If regulators seek new ways to challenge Silicon Valley, these distribution channels are an easy target.

SoftBank WeWork debacle is dot-com bubble déjà vu

4 Dec 2019

Boss Masayoshi Son’s first Silicon Valley foray in the 1990s saw busts around now-notorious online grocer Webvan and others. After the WeWork rescue and Uber’s post-IPO slide, a third shot in the form of a second $100 bln-plus Vision Fund will encounter more investor skepticism.

Maybe eBay should rebrand as a VC fund

25 Nov 2019

The $29 bln firm is a shadow of Amazon in e-commerce, but selling StubHub for $4 bln shows prowess at incubating a business acquired for less than a tenth of that. Off-loading its classified operations could be similarly successful. And eBay’s biggest gains have come from PayPal.

PayPal raids honey pot for $4 bln rewards deal

21 Nov 2019

The $120 bln payments firm’s purchase of online coupon and rewards firm Honey Science will lure customers who might otherwise go to rivals like Apple or Square. The target is even profitable. But at 40 times trailing revenue, there may be little sweet stuff left for PayPal.

China’s Pinduoduo digs in for a long Alibaba fight

21 Nov 2019

Investors wiped $11 bln off the e-commerce challenger’s market value after it posted a worse-than-expected quarterly loss. The rising cost of wooing consumers is to blame, as Pinduoduo battles its largest rival for big-city shoppers. Profitability just got a little more distant.

Slack would be better off as part of a team

19 Nov 2019

Shares of the work-messaging service are down 45% since its June IPO. For all Slack’s charms, Microsoft’s alternative has nearly double the users, and is untroubled by the need to raise capital or turn a profit. Slack’s best course is to find a rich benefactor, like Salesforce.

Russian tech investors see benefits of state grip

19 Nov 2019

Internet group Yandex’s shares jumped after it tweaked its governance to avoid a clampdown on foreign ownership. The new setup hands power to a fuzzy Russian entity, and could enable government meddling. But shareholders have less to worry about than peers in China, or America.

5G hype faces a U.S. market sanity check

18 Nov 2019

Next-generation networks have inspired big deals, killed off others and kicked off a political arms race. Now the regulator wants to auction some spectrum publicly, rather than letting its owners sell privately. That might help raise more funds, but it also raises the stakes.