TCEHY - Tencent Holdings Limited
| Previous Close | 51.55 |
| Open | 51.45 |
| Bid | 0.00 x 0 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 0 |
| Day's Range | 51.35 - 51.62 |
| 52 Week Range | 40.04 - 52.51 |
| Volume | 1,846,161 |
| Avg. Volume | 3,339,793 |
| Market Cap | 490.327B |
| Beta (5Y Monthly) | 1.28 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 38.08 |
| EPS (TTM) | 1.36 |
| Earnings Date | N/A |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 0.26 (0.49%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | May 14, 2019 |
| 1y Target Est | 50.03 |
- Bloomberg
Tencent Responds to ByteDance With WeChat Short-Video Trial
(Bloomberg) -- Tencent Holdings Ltd. is planning a major update to its WeChat messaging app to stave off up-and-comer ByteDance Inc. and counter the startup’s growing dominance of short-form video.WeChat, used by more than a billion people for everything from messaging to booking meals and movies, will soon add a feature to let users publish video clips and photos to their followers via a feed -- not unlike Twitter’s. That’s a departure from the current format that focuses on articles (with accompanying visuals). While it’s unclear what the final product will look like, Tencent wants users to be able to share video and content directly with one another. It began on Monday inviting select individuals and organizations that run public accounts to test the feature.A Tencent representative said the service will launch soon, without elaborating.The foray into short-video publishing marks Tencent’s latest endeavor to recover lost ground from ByteDance, which created social media phenom TikTok and its Chinese twin Douyin. The latter, which now serves 400 million daily active users in China, has hurt Tencent’s bottom line by luring teens and advertisers away from WeChat.ByteDance, the world’s most valuable startup, is increasingly challenging Tencent’s lead in Chinese social media thanks to its Toutiao news service and TikTok-Douyin. The two are sparring in a number of fields revolving around online content. ByteDance has quietly built up a 1,000-strong gaming division to spearhead a serious foray into hardcore or non-casual games, tackling Tencent on its home turf, Bloomberg News has reported.Read more: ByteDance Plans Assault on Tencent’s Mobile Gaming Kingdom“While Tencent’s strategy to retain users and content makes sense, the company needs to tread carefully, because unrestricted short-video publishing may lead to content that is trashy and low-brow, and often also repetitive and non-differentiated,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Vey-Sern Ling.WeChat’s new feature was first hinted at by founder Allen Zhang this month at a developer conference in Guangzhou. In a prerecorded video, the leader confessed he made a mistake by focusing too much on text articles in its current public feed, rather than short-form visual content. “We lack a vehicle for everyone to create,” Zhang said.Tencent is trying to win back younger users addicted to lip-syncing music and dance videos on Douyin, while also seeking to unlock a new channel for clients to place ads. Jefferies analysts including Thomas Chong expect Tencent’s social ad business to grow 30% this year, citing diverse offerings orbiting the WeChat universe. “Social ad is a unique asset and maintains solid momentum in 2020,” they wrote in a Jan. 20 report.This isn’t Tencent’s first crack at short videos. In December 2018, WeChat introduced a Snapchat-like video feature to its semi-public Moments feed, but it barely gained traction. The company has also created several standalone mini-video apps to rival ByteDance’s offerings.Read more: WeChat’s Star Founder Seeks Second Act for China’s Super-App(Updates with analyst comment in sixth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Zheping Huang in Hong Kong at zhuang245@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Edwin Chan at echan273@bloomberg.net, Vlad SavovFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Moody's
Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Grp Co Ltd -- Moody's assigns Ba3 to Wanda Properties' proposed USD notes
Moody's Investors Service has assigned a Ba3 senior unsecured rating to the proposed notes to be issued by Wanda Properties Overseas Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wanda Commercial Properties (Hong Kong) Co. Limited (Wanda HK, Ba3 stable). The proposed notes will be guaranteed by Wanda HK, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd. (DWCM, Ba1 stable). Wanda HK and its parent are together known as Dalian Wanda Group.
- Reuters
Tencent says to step up investment overseas and in smart retail
Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings said it will step up its investment overseas and in industries such as "smart retail", having already invested in more than 800 companies. Tencent is known to have stakes in firms such as food delivery giant Meituan Dianping, e-commerce site Pinduoduo and video game companies such as Riot Games and Supercell. "Previously our traditional investment sectors were mostly focused on video games content and frontiers of science and technology," Lau told a gathering of more than 500 Tencent-backed companies.
- Bloomberg
ByteDance Readying Assault on Tencent’s Mobile Gaming Kingdom
(Bloomberg) -- ByteDance Inc. is preparing a major push into the mobile arena’s most lucrative market, a realm Tencent Holdings Ltd. has dominated for over a decade: games.Sign up for Next China, a weekly email on where the nation stands now and where it's going next.The world’s most valuable startup has rapidly built a full-fledged gaming division to spearhead its maiden foray into hardcore or non-casual games, according to people familiar with the matter. Over the past few months, ByteDance has quietly bought up gaming studios and exclusive title distribution rights. It’s embarked on a hiring spree and poached top talent from rivals, building a team of more than 1,000. Its first two games from the venture will be released this spring, targeting both local and overseas players, one person said.Commonly compared to Facebook Inc. because of its billion-plus users and sway over American teens via social media phenom TikTok, ByteDance is looking to expand its horizons. It started as a popular news aggregator with the Toutiao app in China before setting the world ablaze with short-form video sharing on TikTok and its Chinese twin app Douyin. Now it’s looking to go beyond cheap ads and develop recurring revenue streams by taking on the Tencent gaming goliath in the chase for coveted distribution rights.“Having fully established itself as a leader in short video with over one billion users across its apps, ByteDance is now building multiple game studios by acquiring experienced game developers and talent,” said Daniel Ahmad, analyst with Asia-focused gaming research firm Niko Partners. “Its massive global user base and investment in gaming could make it a big disruptor in the gaming space this year.”Read more: ByteDance Is Said to Weigh TikTok Stake Sale Over U.S. ConcernsGaming in China has long been a Tencent fortress, with Netease Inc. a distant second. But ByteDance might be the one company capable of upsetting that status quo, having already defied convention by surviving and flourishing outside the orbit of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent, who between them have locked up much of the country’s internet sphere. Toutiao is a key channel for Chinese game publishers to acquire new users, with 63 of the top 100 ad spenders among mobile games in 2019 devoting most of their ads to the news app, according to data tracked by Guangzhou-based researcher App Growing.Representatives for ByteDance, Tencent and Netease declined to comment for this story. Shares in Tencent went down as much as 0.6% during morning trading on Monday.Read more: Snap CEO Spiegel Says TikTok Could Grow Bigger Than InstagramOver the past few years, ByteDance has churned out several casual games that have grown popular with the help of its video platforms, but those quick hits made money mostly through ads. Its new foray into gaming involves a much bigger investment and is shaping up to be a major strategic shift, targeting more committed gamers who will splurge on in-game weapons, cosmetics and other perks.It could help the company diversify its sources of revenue at a time when the Chinese economy shows signs of slowing and TikTok draws scrutiny in the U.S. ByteDance is also testing a new paid music app in Asia, adding to its swelling portfolio of ventures. Steady revenue sources would help position ByteDance for an eventual initial public offering.While the move into serious gaming is very much at an embryonic stage, ByteDance is making up for its inexperience by poaching veteran staff from rivals, said the people, who asked not to be named because the plans are private. One of the gaming division’s creative teams is led by Wang Kuiwu, who joined from China’s Perfect World, a major game developer and esports tournament organizer. Yan Shou, ByteDance’s chief of strategy and investment, oversees operations, the people said. The unit runs independently from existing efforts to create casual mobile titles, they said.Read more: TikTok Owner Is Testing Music App in Bid for Next Global HitByteDance is making a global push that includes hiring publishing and marketing staffers based overseas, according to job descriptions viewed by Bloomberg News. One post seeks people to work with influencers and internal platforms to promote games, while another asks candidates to be responsible for “managing indie mobile game publishing projects throughout their life cycle.” This hiring spree is also evident in postings this month for more than a dozen game-related positions on Chinese career site Lagou.com, ranging from product managers to 3-D character designers based in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.Acquiring talent also means buying up studios wholesale. Game studios acquired by ByteDance over the past year include Shanghai Mokun Digital Technology and Beijing-based Levelup.ai, as shown in public company registration information. The company also hired the core developer team from a Netease outfit called Pangu Game, after China’s second-largest gaming firm canceled the studio’s existing projects, according to people familiar with the matter.ByteDance’s game pipeline will include massively multiplayer online games with Chinese fantasy elements, said two people. Its newly acquired studios have pedigree in the genre: Pangu Game’s 2017 hit Revelation is a PC online role-playing game where warriors and sorcerers slay Chinese mythological beasts, while Shanghai Mokun has created several similar titles since its founding in 2013.The challenge of invading Tencent’s turf will nevertheless be immense. Tencent has three of the world’s most popular multiplayer mobile titles in PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty: Mobile and Honour of Kings. They are the blueprint for games that are free to play but rich on in-game purchases -- which accounts for a huge swath of mobile revenues -- that rivals like ByteDance try to emulate. More broadly, Tencent’s locked in a billion-plus users across Asia into a WeChat app that mashes elements of payments, social media, on-demand services and entertainment.Read more: China Will Drive Mobile Spending to Record $380 Billion in 2020Tencent and Netease also enjoy the advantage of having long-established relationships with Chinese regulators, who in 2018 began a campaign to root out gaming addiction that drastically constricted the number and variety of games allowed to be published in the country. Tencent saw hundreds of billions of dollars wiped off its market value as a result and is still recovering. Getting into gaming potentially exposes ByteDance to more regulatory scrutiny domestically, even as it battles U.S. lawmakers’ accusations that TikTok can be used to spy on Americans.Still, ByteDance can’t call itself a true internet giant without a substantial presence in gaming. Last year, 72% of all consumer spending on mobile came in games, according to App Annie, and the market is fiercely competitive. ByteDance’s critical advantage is that it already has a vast and engaged audience among the all-important teenage demographic: it can leverage Douyin/TikTok to channel users toward its games. That mirrors the winning approach Tencent took more than a decade ago when it exploited the reach of its social media platforms to enter gaming. ByteDance will have to prove that the strategy still works.“Gaming is a strategic vertical for tech companies in China as it is a key way to generate additional revenue from a large audience,” Ahmad said. “While they may be able to develop a number of hit titles in the China market, we believe it will still be difficult for them to truly challenge Tencent.”(Updates with analyst comment from fourth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Zheping Huang in Hong Kong at zhuang245@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan, Vlad SavovFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Barrons.com
How Alibaba and Tencent Brought Mobile Payments to Chinese New Year
Seven years ago, the two big China tech giants introduced mobile payments for the exchange of cash gifts—so-called red envelopes. Now the pair continue to compete to increase and engage users.
- Barrons.com
Tesla and 25 Other Stock Picks from Barron’s Roundtable Pros
In the latest installment of Barron’s annual investment Roundtable, five of our 10 panelists take their turn naming top investment picks—and some pans.
- Benzinga
From 'Made in China' to 'Designed in China:' Tesla Is Hiring Staff To Design Models In A New Local Research Center
"In order to achieve a shift of ‘Made in China' to ‘Designed in China', Tesla's CEO Elon Musk has proposed a very cool thing - set up a design and research center in China," the notice read, according to Reuters' translation. Tesla has been aggressively expanding in China.
- Bloomberg
China Will Drive Mobile Spending to Record $380 Billion in 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Mobile app spending and usage hit a record in 2019 and show no signs of tapering off this year as faster cellular connections and more big-name video streaming services come online, industry tracker App Annie says.China should again prove the biggest driver of consumption on everything from video streaming to games operated by social media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., propelling spending 23% higher to $380 billion this year, App Annie researchers said. China made up half of all consumer spending in 2019 and was among the fastest-growing markets when it came to time spent on a mobile device. The global average is now 3.7 hours per person per day, according to the researchers.Among the headline grabbers of 2019 was ByteDance Inc.’s video-sharing platforms including TikTok, which racked up 14.5 billion hours of time watched and grew its audience 200% in the fourth quarter. Nine out of every 10 minutes spent in the app have come from China, App Annie said. Google’s YouTube Music racked up even more impressive numbers, growing worldwide active users 870% over the 24 months ending Dec. 19.“Year 2020 will mark the beginning of a mobile-first decade,” said Cindy Deng, managing director for Asia-Pacific at App Annie. “It’s imperative that brands start to adapt their strategy to this growing generation, or risk being left behind.”Tinder, Netflix and Tencent Lead Record-Breaking Year for AppsIn the past year, mobile apps accumulated $120 billion of global consumer spending, with games accounting for 72% of that. Advertising brought in $190 billion, said App Annie, forecasting the number to grow to $240 billion this year.Generation Z -- the cohort born after 1997 for whom mobile has become the first screen -- is fueling the surge. Income from games continued to grow in 2019, when 1,121 mobile titles brought in more than $5 million in earnings, up from 959 two years prior. 139 games went beyond $100 million in revenue for the year, up from 88 in 2017.But non-gaming apps grew even faster, led primarily by subscription-based revenue models and a rabid appetite for entertainment.In the U.S., App Annie found Apple Inc.’s iOS platform commanded 79% of non-gaming app revenue versus Google’s Android claiming 21%, with the majority on both platforms coming from subscriptions to the likes of Tinder and Netflix Inc.The use of mobile finance apps doubled between 2017 and 2019, with users accessing such services 1.1 trillion times in the past year. This has been driven by mobile-first countries like China, India and Brazil, while Indonesia, Japan and Russia are growing fastest when it comes to monthly active users. App Annie analysts said fintech apps designed specifically for mobile screens, such as Monzo or PayPay, were outperforming traditional banks because of their greater ease of use.Entertainment apps also saw a 120% rise in use over the past two years, and in 2019 Netflix was joined by Apple TV+ and Walt Disney Co.’s Disney+ subscription streaming offerings. The competition will intensify as more mobile-centric services emerge: former HP Inc. Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman and film veteran Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi, for instance, offers different video perspectives depending on how a phone is held.Streaming content looks likely to be the big driver for the adoption of 5G networking among mobile users, as App Annie found it growing universally around the globe. On Android phones over the past two years, India streamed nearly 80% more, France and Japan were up more than 50% and the U.S., Canada, and Indonesia all grew by more than 40%. Data consumption on streaming sports was up 80% over the same period, indicating a bandwidth-hungry market that’s far from hitting its consumption ceiling.To contact the reporter on this story: Vlad Savov in Tokyo at vsavov5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Edwin Chan at echan273@bloomberg.net, Vlad SavovFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Why this Cheap E-Commerce Stock Up 140% in a Year is a Strong Buy for 2020
Vipshop Holdings (VIPS) stock has soared 140% in the last year to crush Alibaba as the online discount retailer expands its customer base...
- Benzinga
Are You Ready For Some Esports? League Of Legends Will Add 'Monday Night League' Games On Website, YouTube, Twitch
The esports series plans to announce this week that it will feature games on its current webcast outlets - its own website, Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) YouTube, and Amazon.com, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Twitch. The League of Legends Championship Series is the top level of professional play in the United States of the League of Legends video game from Tencent Holding/ADR (OTC: TCEHY)'s Riot Games, which runs the league.
- Bloomberg
TSMC, Samsung & Why Asia Chipmaker Profits Are Key
(Bloomberg) -- With tech earnings looming this month, investor attention is zeroing in on some of Asia’s largest chipmakers. And there’s reason for it: the sector’s influence on the region’s stocks has kept on growing.Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is set to report fourth-quarter results Thursday, potentially hitting record revenue of more than $10.2 billion and its highest quarterly gross margins since 2018, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Charles Shum said in a Jan. 7 preview. TSMC shares are up more than 4% this month and touched an intraday high Tuesday.“Many of TSMC’s customers such as Huawei, Qualcomm and Mediatek are quickening their pace of adopting cutting-edge processes to prepare for the launch of 5G mobile devices,” Shum said in the report.Rival Samsung Electronics Co. releases its final results Jan. 30. Preliminary figures announced earlier this month showed quarterly earnings beat estimates as global chip prices have shown signs of escaping a protracted slump.The two chipmaking behemoths are the No. 3 and 4 largest stocks in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index and also key contributors to the growing influence of technology names in the gauge. The industry now accounts for almost 15% of the regional gauge, up from 12% at the start of 2019. Internet giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. have the highest weightings in the index.Managers of emerging-market stocks have increased their exposure to semiconductor shares to a record 7.3%, making of it the largest overweight by sector, according to Steven Holden, an analyst at Smartkarma Holdings Pte. Taiwan and South Korean equity overweights also hit a peak, with TSMC among the most favorite companies, it said.Despite all the positives, one potential question mark for TSMC remains Huawei Technologies Co. Tighter export restrictions on the Chinese company by the U.S. would make some of TSMC’s technologies unshippable to Huawei, analysts led by Mark Li at Sanford C. Bernstein wrote in a Jan. 8 note. While the actual impact on revenue is expected to be in the low single digits and TSMC will be able to pivot to other customers, a short-term impact is “inevitable as share shifts and supply-chain realignment take time.”But overall, the outlook for the semiconductor industry is positive on growth drivers including new 5G technology adoption, internet of things momentum, robust data center demand and even new game console launches, Credit Suisse analysts Randy Abrams and Haas Liu said in a Jan. 13 report.“Stocks are recovering from the prior decade’s de-rating and returning to pre-crisis valuations that can sustain,” the analysts said. The main risk? With higher valuations after a strong 2019 rally, any disappointment from product cycle ramps or macro shocks could lead to potential short-term pullbacks, they added.Stock-Market SummaryMSCI Asia Pacific Index up 0.2%Japan's Topix index up 0.3%; Nikkei 225 up 0.7%Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index down 0.3%; Hang Seng China Enterprises down 0.4%; Shanghai Composite down 0.1%; CSI 300 down 0.2%Taiwan's Taiex index up 0.5%South Korea's Kospi index up 0.3%; Kospi 200 up 0.4%Australia's S&P/ASX 200 up 0.8%; New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 up 0.7%India's S&P BSE Sensex Index little changed; NSE Nifty 50 little changedSingapore's Straits Times Index up 0.5%; Malaysia’s KLCI down 0.7%; Philippine Stock Exchange Index down 0.5%; Jakarta Composite up 0.2%; Thailand's SET little changed; Vietnam's VN Index up 0.2%S&P 500 e-mini futures little changed after index closed up 0.7% in last session(Adds Smartkarma comments in sixth paragraph, stock-summary section)\--With assistance from Cormac Mullen, Abhishek Vishnoi and Moxy Ying.To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Lam in Hong Kong at elam87@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Lianting Tu, Cecile VannucciFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- TechCrunch
China Roundup: WeChat's new focus on monetization
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China Roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world. The event is meant to give clues to WeChat's future and the rare occasion where its secretive founder Allen Zhang emerges in public view. The boss's absence was not outright unexpected, an industry analyst told me, as WeChat shifts to focus more on monetization.
- Benzinga
Pokémon GO's 2019 Was Even Bigger Than That Year When Everybody Was Playing Pokémon GO
Niantic's Pokémon GO had its best year ever in 2019, even besting 2016, when seemingly everyone was running around their towns playing the game right after its launch, app tracking website Sensor Tower reported Friday. The augmented reality mobile game app generated just under $900 million in gross player spending, Sensor Tower estimated, beating the $830 million plus it reaped the year the game exploded onto the scene with the most downloads ever for an app in its first week. The take made Pokémon GO No. 5 in mobile game earnings worldwide this year with "Honor Kings" from Tencent Holding (OTC: TCEHY) topping the chart, generating nearly $1.5 billion.
- Bloomberg
DBS Touts E-Sports Stocks as Bet on Millennial, Gen-Z Wealth
(Bloomberg) -- The electronic sports industry is likely to grow significantly in coming years and stocks in the sector are poised to benefit, according to DBS Group Holdings Ltd.E-sports, or multiplayer video games played competitively by professional gamers, is a key investment theme in the Singapore-based bank’s quarterly CIO outlook as the phenomenon gains traction among increasingly wealthy millennials and their Generation Z counterparts. Live streaming will help lead to “exponential growth,” with companies such as Activision Blizzard Inc., Nintendo Co. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. set to benefit, according to Thursday’s report.“E-sports is expected to undergo phenomenal growth in the coming years - from both a viewership and monetization standpoint,” the report said. “Game developers are predominantly the biggest beneficiaries given that they are involved in almost every facet of e-Sports – from games publishing to the creation of leagues and the hosting of tournaments.”Streaming platforms and hardware manufacturers will also benefit, it said.Read: Even Small Esports Names Gain as Industry Matures, Stephens SaysExposure to the field has already been paying off for investors. The MVIS Global Video Gaming and eSports Index is up 47% since the end of 2018, compared with the S&P 500’s 31% advance. The gauge of 25 companies which includes NetEase Inc., Zynga Inc., Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc., has risen 3.4% this year versus a 1.4% gain in the broader benchmark.(Adds story link after fourth paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Joanna Ossinger in Singapore at jossinger@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Cormac Mullen, Naoto HosodaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
India Education Startup Raising Funds at $8 Billion Valuation
(Bloomberg) -- Byju’s is raising about $300 million in a funding round led by New York-based Tiger Global Management, securing new capital at a valuation of $8 billion for the online education startup’s global expansion.Tiger has invested about $150 million in Byju-parent Think and Learn Pvt, according to people familiar with the deal. Existing investors will likely contribute about the same amount though that is in flux, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing a sensitive matter. Separately, Tiger is also looking to buy shares from other stockholders and could eventually invest a further $100 million depending on availability, one of the people said.The new funding round confers on Byju’s the title of India’s most valuable startup after Ant Financial-backed fintech firm Paytm and the budget hotel rooms startup OYO. Byju’s, last valued at about $5.7 billion, overtakes online retailer Snapdeal and is the only one of the top three that hasn’t taken funding from SoftBank Group Corp or its Vision Fund. Paytm rose to the fore after Walmart Inc. acquired Flipkart Online Services Pvt. -- also SoftBank-backed -- in a $16 billion deal in 2018.“Byju’s has emerged as the leader in the Indian education-tech sector,” Scott Shleifer, a partner at Tiger Global, said in a statement that didn’t specify financial details. “They are pioneering technology shaping the future of learning for millions of school students in India.”Tiger Global didn’t respond to an email seeking details of the funding and valuation. A Byju’s spokeswoman declined comment.Read more: 37-Year-Old Former School Teacher Is India’s Newest BillionaireByju’s was founded by Byju Raveendran in 2011, a former teacher and son of educators, who conceived a smartphone app to help students learn and master concepts from math and science using short videos. In a country that places a premium on education, Byju’s launched its app just as smartphones were becoming ubiquitous. The app caters to students from kindergarten through 12th grade and now plans to go global and launch in English-speaking countries around the world, including the U.S., Canada and the U.K.It also plans to go deeper in its home country, where it’s working on launching learning modules in Indian languages to make it more accessible. Byju’s, also backed by Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg through the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Tencent Holdings Ltd., Naspers Ventures and Sequoia Capital India, has over 42 million registered users and 3 million paid subscribers from both rural areas and India’s cities. On average, students spend between 64 minutes to 71 minutes per day on the app. Annual renewal rates were up as high as 85% in the past year, the startup said in Friday’s statement.Byju’s said it expects to double revenues to 30 billion rupees ($422 million) in the year ending March 2020, after tripling revenue to 14.8 billion rupees in fiscal 2019 and turning profitable on a full-year basis.“While these are early days on how technology can enable better learning, there is tremendous potential in this segment to create a highly scalable and sustainable model that can equip and prepare the current generation for the unseen jobs of tomorrow,” Raveendran said in the statement. The founder, who owns about 21% of the startup in addition to his family’s holding, became a billionaire last year.The 37-year-old entrepreneur has said he wants to do for education what Mickey Mouse did for entertainment. Last year, the app started using Disney staples from The Lion King’s Simba to Frozen’s Anna to teach math and English to students from grades one through three. The same characters star in animated videos, games, stories and interactive quizzes.To contact the reporter on this story: Saritha Rai in Bangalore at srai33@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Edwin ChanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Tencent-Backed Little Red Book Seeks $6 Billion Valuation
(Bloomberg) -- China’s social media and e-commerce startup Xiaohongshu, or “Little Red Book,” is in early talks to raise funds at a valuation of about $6 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.The online platform, backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., aims to raise about $400 million to $500 million, said the people. The company is working with an adviser on the financing plan and has sounded out potential investors, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private. Its valuation reached about $5 billion last year, one person said.There hasn’t been a final decision on the fundraising size as deliberations are still at an early stage, the people said. A representative for Xiaohongshu didn’t respond to requests for comment.Xiaohongshu resumed seeking new funds following an earlier attempt that was suspended after its offering was taken down from app stores last year. The app has since returned and is available for downloads, with more than 300 million users as of July, according to its website.Xiaohongshu -- which calls itself RED and stresses its name bears no relation to the seminal book of Mao Zedong’s quotations -- was founded in 2013 as an online community that recommends overseas e-commerce sites for users in China. It later entered e-commerce and then evolved into a social media platform where users share their daily life moments through videos and pictures on topics including skincare, food and travel.The startup closed a $300 million series D financing at a valuation more than $3 billion in 2018. The round was led by Alibaba and other investors including GSR Ventures and Tencent Investment.\--With assistance from Lulu Yilun Chen.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Dong Cao in Beijing at dcao59@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Fion Li at fli59@bloomberg.net, Vlad SavovFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Tencent Partners With UnionPay to Merge QR Code Systems
Tencent (TCEHY) partners with UnionPay to develop fintech business and strengthen its position in the payments market.
- Bloomberg
Greenpeace Calls Out Alibaba, Tencent in First China Ranking
(Bloomberg) -- Greenpeace, calling attention to the Chinese technology sector’s ballooning energy consumption, has ranked the country’s best and worst environmental citizens for the first time. The winner by a long margin turns out to be ChinData Group, a little-known unicorn-in-waiting backed by Bain Capital that outdoes far bigger names Alibaba and Tencent.Ranking 15 of China’s biggest internet companies for the first time, Greenpeace found the majority lacking in areas such as transparency -- by way of public disclosure of their energy consumption -- and the speed at which they’re moving to renewable energy sources. The research was conducted in partnership with the North China Electric Power University and urges faster adoption of solar and wind power along with commitments to 100% renewable energy consumption.Greenpeace did note progress among many of China’s internet giants, but said they lag global peers. Apple Inc., for one, has pledged to ditch fossil fuels and reduce their usage throughout the supply chain. Tencent Holdings Ltd. was among the best in disclosures of energy usage, though the company hadn’t made much of an advance in switching to renewable sources, the activist group said. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. scored highest after ChinData but only managed a mark of 60 out of 100, illustrating the enormity of the task ahead. 21Vianet Group Inc., Microsoft Corp.’s cloud provision partner in China, scored a paltry 21.“Power consumption from China’s internet industry is skyrocketing,” said Greenpeace East Asia climate and energy campaigner Ye Ruiqi. “And it’s imperative that Chinese internet giants lead the sector to break away from its reliance on coal.”Around two thirds of China’s power is produced from coal-burning plants, but Beijing wants to drastically reduce that through expanded use of renewable energy. “In the near term, China will still need to rely on coal power to serve for balancing and ensuring grid safety, and Chinese enterprises will continue to find it cheaper to sign power purchase contracts with coal power plants,” said Hanyang Wei, China power market analyst at BloombergNEF. Ranking reports are meaningful because they allow Chinese tech companies to benchmark against foreign counterparts, he added.ChinData became the first domestic datacenter company to commit to a 100% renewable energy target at the end of 2019, according to Greenpeace, which also ranks tech companies globally. It’s also among a group of companies that have begun to strategically locate new data centers near areas of existing and abundant renewable energy generation, such as Hebei, Inner Mongolia and Sichuan province. The company, likely headed for an initial public offering this year, builds and operates massive server warehouses that handle data for internet companies.(Updates with analyst comment in fifth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Vlad Savov in Tokyo at vsavov5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Edwin Chan at echan273@bloomberg.net, Colum MurphyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
China’s 58 Home Seeks U.S. IPO of $2 Billion Online Services Arm
(Bloomberg) -- 58 Home, owned by China’s Craigslist equivalent 58.com Inc., is close to completing a private fundraising en route to a U.S. initial public offering that could value the online services platform at as much as $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said.The business, known locally as 58 Daojia, is seeking funds to bankroll an expansion into China’s competitive online services arena. It’s now wrapping up a pre-IPO financing round at a valuation of more than $1 billion, the people said, requesting not to be named because the matter is private. Once that’s done, 58 Home intends to prepare for a U.S. debut in which it will seek a valuation of between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, one of the people said.Deliberations are at an early stage and details of the potential offering could still change, the people said. Liu Cong, a spokesman for 58.com, declined to comment, while a representative for 58 Home also had no comment. 58.com’s shares rose 2% in New York.58 Home is one of China’s leaders in helping people connect online with services from flower delivery to home-cleaning. Backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., it’s vying for market share however against deeper-pocketed rivals such as Meituan Dianping and certain businesses operated by e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. All are eyeing a slice of a market for physical, on-demand services still largely undisrupted by online technology.58.com’s unit raised its last private funding round in 2015, garnering $300 million from investors including Alibaba, KKR and Ping An Group. Parent 58.com holds 68.8% of the company’s equity interest but doesn’t consolidate the unit’s financials in its own results, according to its annual filing.(Updates with shares in third paragraph)\--With assistance from Julia Fioretti and Manuel Baigorri.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Lulu Yilun Chen in Hong Kong at ychen447@bloomberg.net;Dong Cao in Beijing at dcao59@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, ;Fion Li at fli59@bloomberg.net, Edwin ChanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- South China Morning Post
Tencent and state-owned UnionPay to merge QR code systems for mobile payments in China
Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings is working to integrate its QR code system for mobile payments with state-owned China UnionPay, giving the latter a bigger slice of the hotly-contested industry.With the common QR code system, merchants could provide users of WeChat Pay " the mobile payment service within Tencent's ubiquitous messaging and social media app WeChat " and UnionPay's Quickpass with the same code to make payments, Chinese media Caixin reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Currently, merchants have to offer different codes for each payment service.A Tencent spokesman confirmed the Caixin report and said that the company's fintech arm, Tenpay, is collaborating with UnionPay on relevant services on a trial basis. UnionPay did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The unified QR code system has started testing on Android devices in eastern China's Fuzhou city, Caixin reported, adding that Tencent and UnionPay have also agreed to work together on facial recognition-based payments.The tie-up would open up a space for UnionPay as a third major player in China's hotly-contested payments market, currently dominated by a duopoly of WeChat Pay and Alipay by Ant Financial. WeChat Pay and Alipay jointly accounted for over 90 per cent of China's mobile payments in 2018, data from China Internet Watch showed. WeChat Pay, Alipay to give Chinese people e-access to national insuranceAlipay is not involved in similar negotiations with UnionPay, according to Caixin. Ant Financial, affiliate to the Post's parent company Alibaba, declined to comment for this story.The integration between Tencent and UnionPay's QR code payment systems is a step forward in the central bank's plan for the industry. In a three-year plan for fintech development issued last August, the People's Bank of China listed a unified code-scan standard as one of the major tasks for the industry from 2019 to 2021. An integrated bar code system should be available across different payment apps and merchants by 2021, according to the plan.Over 40 per cent of China's population " or 583 million users " are paying for goods and services with their smartphones, according to the China Internet Report 2019, co-authored by the Post, its sister news site Abacus and venture capitalist Edith Yeung.On the mainland, WeChat Pay boasts a penetration rate of 89.2 per cent in the mobile payment market thanks to WeChat, which has over 1 billion users, ahead of Alipay's 69.5 per cent, according to market research firm Ipsos. The two apps are almost equal in terms of transaction amounts, with WeChat Pay accounting for 45 per cent of the total value of transactions and Alipay for 46 per cent, according to Ipsos data.Sign up now for our 50% early bird offer from SCMP Research: China AI Report. The all new SCMP China AI Report gives you exclusive first-hand insights and analysis into the latest industry developments, and actionable and objective intelligence about China AI that you should be equipped with.This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
