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Jack Ma enlarges his Chinese payments peloton

5 Dec 2017

Having invested in bike-sharing giant Ofo, Alibaba affiliate Ant is putting another $300 mln into rival Youon. That's 80 mln potential users to lock into Ma's Alipay system. The move reflects rising stakes in a cutthroat battle with Mobike, backed by payments rival Tencent.

Facebook targets children with Snap rip-off

4 Dec 2017

Mark Zuckerberg’s outfit is launching a messaging app for kids under 12. It’s a bid to attract a new generation of users by a company struggling to lure youngsters from Snapchat. Yet it’s also a gamble for Facebook. Targeting tweens will invite even closer regulatory scrutiny.

Chinese fintech Qudian dangerously reverses IPO

5 Dec 2017

The $4.1 bln micro-lender backed by Alibaba's Ant Financial intends to buy back a big slug of the stock it just debuted in October. The plan follows China's crackdown on the industry. With the full implications unclear and a share-lockup expiry looming, Qudian's move is risky.

Spotify and Tencent make oddly logical supergroup

1 Dec 2017

The Swedish music-streaming service and the Chinese tech giant’s rival unit may swap 10 pct stakes. Tencent gains another trophy asset and access to expertise making users pay. Spotify gets cash and a peek into a huge market. The risk is it muddies already hard-to-price IPOs.

Review: Firm ideas for a world of soft assets

1 Dec 2017

Modern economies are increasingly built on intangible factors like research and development and software. "Capitalism Without Capital" shows how this trend contributes to problems like rising inequality. But it stops short of tackling the rising dominance of big tech groups.

Australia’s Aristocrat makes reckless mobile bet

30 Nov 2017

The $11 bln group's shares slumped on plans to buy online games firm Big Fish for $1 bln. A wobble in tech stocks probably doesn’t help. But the deal looks pricey, Big Fish’s recent performance is weak, and the rationale for uniting slot machines and mobile games is thin.

Hadas: Bitcoin at $10,000 is even more dangerous

29 Nov 2017

The crypto-currency is on the verge of turning respectable, but a futures market cannot cure its faults. It is economic nonsense, socially irresponsible and an incoherent vote for cultural nihilism. Then there is the unadulterated greed. Disaster can't come soon enough.

China credit move a plus for twitchy web lenders

29 Nov 2017

The web finance watchdog will create a credit rating platform with private companies including Tencent, says China Daily: a healthy development in a messy industry. But forcing big players to share too much proprietary data could dilute competitiveness and discourage innovation.

Uber backers face head-on collision with greed

28 Nov 2017

SoftBank is offering to buy shares in the ride-hailing firm at a $48 bln valuation. Even with a 30 pct markdown to the last fundraising, investors could cash out and make many multiples of their money. The prospect of a $500 bln colossus, however risky, will cloud the thinking.

Fed eggheads scramble online-loans takedown

22 Nov 2017

Analysts at the central bank’s Cleveland unit had to pull a study claiming peer-to-peer lending was highly risky after its data was questioned. It’s a tricky sector to define and worsening consumer credit is a concern. But the Fed’s hasty conclusion tarnishes its own reputation.

China’s Skype crackdown invites messaging wars

22 Nov 2017

Apple removed Microsoft's internet phone service from the local store, as foreign call and chat apps get squeezed out of the market. Suppression also supports overseas expansion of homegrown tools Beijing monitors, like Tencent's WeChat. Chinese tech should gird for retaliation.

Silicon Valley gets lesson in Chinese corruption

22 Nov 2017

Lu Wei, the former head of the Cyberspace Administration of China, whom Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman courted, just got snagged in a corruption probe. It's a reminder that party trumps personnel. And that Lu's former agency is more than a censor. It now determines policy.

HelloFresh barely clears low hurdles

21 Nov 2017

The German meal-kit service delivered soaring revenues and better margins for its first results as a listed company. Shares are down 2 percent since flotation. That is hardly a runaway success but better than shelved listings in Britain and U.S. rival Blue Apron’s public mauling.

Half-a-trillion-dollar Tencent is market headache

21 Nov 2017

The Chinese tech giant’s market value briefly hit $535 bln, making it bigger than Facebook. While Tencent has helped push Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index to near-record highs, the gains flatter a weaker wider market. Any correction would hit a multitude of investors.

Alibaba deal guides grocers to checkout

20 Nov 2017

The e-commerce goliath is buying over a third of Chinese supermarket owner Sun Art for $2.9 bln. It underscores how food marks a pivotal retail battleground. And for Alibaba to secure the stake at a 24 pct discount suggests its brick-and-mortar rivals see the writing on the wall.

Wal-Mart flexes its muscle in Amazon fight

16 Nov 2017

The $268 bln retailer increased its third-quarter revenue as more people visited its stores. Online, the firm kicked out an impressive 50 percent increase in sales. Even grocery sales improved. The Bentonville, Arkansas giant is worth keeping a close eye on in Seattle.

Amazon surrenders cheapest bit of Chinese cloud

14 Nov 2017

A local partner will buy the hardware associated with the U.S. web giant’s cloud-services business. Onerous new security rules – or, for critics, Beijing’s protectionist tendencies – are behind the sale. Amazon and other Western tech firms may yet have to give up more.

Online lending defaults could soon go viral

13 Nov 2017

Peer-to-peer loans in the United States are going bad at double-digit rates, eerily like subprime mortgages a decade ago. Although the sector is small, the trend coincides with rising bank credit-card losses. These are classic late-cycle signs of stress among American consumers.

China’s JD-Alibaba rivalry enters new phase

13 Nov 2017

A jump in third-quarter sales and a surprise net profit show the $57 bln JD.com is reining in costs while keeping up with its larger e-commerce rival. But Alibaba is muscling in on key JD.com domains like logistics and food. This will add volatility to already thin margins.