Category: Uncategorized

「What’s News In China」

Dinsey Shanghai began construction for the new Zootopia-themed (疯狂动物园主题) expansion. Zootopia will be Shanghai Disneyland’s eighth themed land. It will also be the first Zootopia-themed expansion at a Disney park worldwide. On Dec 9, the construction has officially started; the plan was first announced in January this year. In China, Zootopia is the 2nd best-selling movie in 2016 and the 2nd best-selling anime movie in history as of 2019. // YiCai

Bilibili (哔哩哔哩) just paid RMB 800 million (US$ 113 million) for e-sport broadcast right. Trying to capture the market potentials in e-sports and live-streaming in China, Bilibili (NASDAQ: BILI) has reportedly spent RMB 800 million (USD 113 million) on a three-year exclusive agreement to broadcast the Riot Games’ League of Legends (LoL) World Championship in China. The 2018 LoL World Championship has 99.6 million unique viewers. // KrAsia | 36Kr

BCG opened its Asia-Pacific center for digital services in Shenzhen. Opened on Dec 6, the new DigitalBCG Immersion Centers in Shenzhen is the firm’s fifth global center for digital transformation after Silicon Valley, Paris, New York and Bangalore. // prnasia

「What’s News In China」

Gree Electric Appliances (格力电器) finalized the 15% stake sale for RMB41.7 billionIt is one of the most watched private equity deal in China. The deal, part of China’s efforts to reduce government ownership, will reduce the state-owned Zhuhai Gree Group’s stake to 3.2 percent. Hillhouse’s Zhuhai Mingjun with the newly acquired 15% stake becomes the largest single shareholder. Hillhouse through Zhuhai Mingjun can nominate 3 seats in the 9-member board (in addition to two board seats from Hillhouse’ Zhuhai Gaoling and alliance Pearl Brilliance) and agreed to an equity incentive plan of no more than 4 percent. // 36Kr

Baidu’s smart speaker leads in China in 2019 Q3. According to Strategy Analytics, Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) shipped 4.3 million smart speakers in 2019 Q3, growing 130% yoy, surpassing Alibaba and Xiaomi, whose product shipments follow closely. Before Baidu launched its smart speaker with proprietary DuerOS voice AI, Alibaba and Xiaomi were dividing up the market share in China. // StrategyAnalytics

Tencent is officially launching Nintendo Switch in China. Tencent held a press conference on Dec 4 in Shanghai, announcing that the official Chinese version of the Nintendo Switch will launch in mainland China next week (Dec 10). Tencent and Nintendo first announced the partnership in April this year. The Switch will include a copy of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, selling for 2,099 yuan (~$297). // Tencent

Source: TechCrunch

「What’s News In China」

Alibaba raised ~$11.2 billion in Hong Kong Stock Exchange, offering stocks at HKD$176 per share. With Hong Kong exchange relaxed its rules around “one share, one vote”, Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is able to list its shares on HKEX again. It is the world’s largest listing so far this year. The overall sum raised could rise to nearly US$13 billion if the underwriting banks exercise an option to sell 15% more shares. // WSJ

Walmart announced on Nov 21 that it plans to add 500 new stores in China over the next five to seven years. It will also remodel more than 200 stores in China over the next few years, adding features such as self-service cash registers where customers can pay using facial recognition. The company’s China sales grew 6.3% last quarter, higher than its 2.5% growth worldwide. // CNN

Kuaishou (快手), the main competitor for Douyin (Tik Tok) in China, to become the exclusive partner for 2020 Chinese New Year Gala. The Chinese New Year Gala (春晚), or Spring Festival Gala, is the most watched annual television broadcast and Kuaishou will be the exclusive partner for 2020 to send red pockets (红包) to audience. Last year, Baidu was the exclusive partner to promote the use of its digital wallet. spending over ¥1 billion in red pockets. Kuaishou has achieved 200 million DAU in 2019 and the target is 300 million. // Jiemian

「News of the Week」Japan’s New Internet Giant

WSJ – Yahoo Japan and Chat App Line Agree to Merge

SoftBank’s announcement

As part of the deal, SoftBank Group subsidiary SoftBank Corp. and Naver said they would buy all the shares in Line not already owned by Naver at ¥5,200 ($47.78) a share. Naver owns 72.6% of Line as of Monday. SoftBank Corp. and Naver will pay ¥170 billion ($1.56 billion) each to buy those Line shares, SoftBank said.

Line Pay has 37 million users and PayPay, operated jointly by SoftBank and Yahoo Japan, has 19 million. (Nikkei)

Source: WSJ, Bloomberg

Dots to connect: competitions in ads, e-commerce, payment in Japan, monetization on 82 million Line MAU, Japan moving to cash-less, SoftBank’s consolidated financial performance, new superapp, etc.