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Payments App Circle Raises $60 million, Open Office in China

23Jun By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Payments App Circle Raises $60 million, Open Office in China

U.S.-based payments app Circle has raised $60 million from Chinese investors and launched a company in China, as it seeks to expand in the world's second-largest economy. The latest funding comes from existing investor and Beijing-based tech investment fund IDG Capital Partners, as well as Chinese firms including Baidu, CICC Alpha and Everbright Investments, Circle's co-founder Jeremy Allaire said. "We're not aiming to compete with the domestic market as that would be a suicide mission given the strength of local players like Alipay and WeChat, but we can connect Chinese consumers with the euro zone and dollar markets," Allaire said. Circle's China unit operates as a separate locally incorporated company and has not yet launched a product, pending a deal with a local banking partner a...

23Jun By AdityaNo Comments

CHINA

McDonald’s Going To Auction China, HK stores, Could Fetch Up to $3 Billion Deal

McDonald's has received more than half a dozen bids for its China and Hong Kong stores, including offers from Beijing Tourism Group, Sanpower and ChemChina, in an auction that could fetch up to $3 billion, people familiar with the matter said. Buyout firms including Bain Capital, TPG Capital and Carlyle Group are also participating in the auction with a view to teaming up with Chinese strategic bidders, the people said. "Given the difficulties Western chains have had recently with public perception, local players have become a serious competitive threat," said Elizabeth Friend, consumer foodservice analyst at Euromonitor International. Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald's has hired Morgan Stanley to run the sale of about 2,800 restaurants in China, Hong Kong and South Korea, Reute...

23Jun By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

CHINA

Chinas 4G Users Touches 530 Million, Worlds Largest

High-speed network 4G has become immensely popular in China as the number of its users shot to 530 million in Q1 this year, exceeding the number of 4G users in the US and Europe put together, a senior official said today. China has the worlds largest 4G network, covering all cities and major towns, Chen Zhaoxiong, vice minister of industry and information technology told the 2016 China Internet Conference. China had around two million 4G base stations at the end of March, he added. Chinas mobile Internet users hit 619 million at the end of last year, accounting for a bit more than 90 per cent of the total netizens. The Internet has become a critical element of Chinas economic development, he said. The size of the Internet economy amounted to 1.12 trillion yuan (USD 171 billi...

Doubts Surrounding Over Investors Backing Both Uber and Didi in China

17Jun By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Doubts Surrounding Over Investors Backing Both Uber and Didi in China

Ride-hailing companies Uber and Didi have brought many new dimensions to the startup industry, such as making billion-dollar-plus funding rounds routine. Now, they have added another to the list: sharing big investors who are backing both companies, even though they are fierce rivals. Uber, the leading ride service in the United States and much of the world, and Didi Chuxing, which claims 87 percent of the Chinese market for private vehicle ride-hailing, now share at least four investors: asset manager BlackRock, Chinese investment manager Hillhouse Capital Group, hedge fund Tiger Global and insurer China Life, according to investment records and sources familiar with the deals. "It's very unusual to allow the same parties to invest and get information rights of sworn mortal enemies. ...

Alibaba Expects $900 Billion Transaction Volumes By 2020

14Jun By AdityaNo Comments

CHINA

Alibaba Expects $900 Billion Transaction Volumes By 2020

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Tuesday it expects to nearly double its transaction volumes by 2020, signalling it still expects rampant growth as Executive Chairman Jack Ma pledged to intensify a crackdown on fake goods. At an investor conference at its headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Alibaba said it expects to record 6 trillion yuan ($912 billion) in gross merchandise volume (GMV) in fiscal 2020, nearly double 3.09 trillion yuan in fiscal 2016. Echoing that growth, Ma said Alibaba expects to have 2 billion consumers on its books by 2036, up from 423 million active buyers in 2016. Addressing concerns about the company's efforts to remove counterfeit products from its online platforms, Ma said Alibaba will do "anything to stop the fake produ...

Nokia Signs $1.5 Billion Framework Deal With China Mobile

14Jun By reutersNo Comments

BUSINESS

Nokia Signs $1.5 Billion Framework Deal With China Mobile

Nokia has signed a 1.36 billion euro ($1.5 bln) one-year framework deal with China Mobile, the Finnish company said on Monday, easing fears that it would lose market share while it merges operations with Alcatel-Lucent. Shares in the company were up 0.2 percent as of 1120 GMT versus a Helsinki bourse down 1.42 percent. Nokia's network equipment sales fell more than expected in the first quarter as buyers held off due to the Alcatel integration process.China Mobile is Nokia's biggest customer in China. "In the light of this announcement, China is not the market which one should be very worried about this year. They've managed to hold on to the positions of old Nokia and old Alcatel," said Nordea analyst Sami Sarkamies, who holds a 'buy' rating on the stock. He added that N...

Digital India Can Be a Major Driver of The India’s Growth – Arogyaswami Paulraj

13Jun By AnkitaNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

Digital India Can Be a Major Driver of The India’s Growth – Arogyaswami Paulraj

Indian American inventor Arogyaswami Paulraj, known for his contribution to faster wireless connectivity popularly known as MIMO, the core technology used in all modern wireless networks, said digital India can be a major driver of the country's growth story if executed in the right manner. He also said that Make in India is "a good slogan" but "it is a long way from a good slogan to execution". "Digitisation of the country at every level will help and particularly with Adhaar, we can do a lot more. We really need to improve broadband access in India, which will be part of digital India campaign and the way to do it is through wireless and the way to wireless is largely through wi-fi as the access is cheaper," Arogyaswami Paulraj said. MIMO is a core technology used in all modern ...

5Jun By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

CHINA

Uber Aims to Overtake China Market Leader Didi in 2017

Ride-hailing app Uber expects to continue on a "rapid growth" path in China, hoping to surpass market leader Didi Chuxing in 2017, Uber China's head of strategy said on Friday. The company has been in fierce competition with Didi Chuxing, which is backed by Internet giants Alibaba Group and Tencent, across China. Uber's market share in China has grown to about 30% now from 1% in 2015, Liu Zhen said at The Wall Street Journal's Converge technology conference in Hong Kong. Both companies have spent heavily to subsidise fares to gain market share in the country, raising speculation in local media that they might ultimately join forces. Didi itself teamed up with a former local rival last year. "I heard the noise a lot and got asked that a lot about this (a tie-up with Didi)," ...

Micromax Said Will Earn Money In India and Burn Money in China

4Jun By AnkitaNo Comments

BUSINESS

Micromax Said Will Earn Money In India and Burn Money in China

India’s home-grown mobile phone giant Micromax is looking east. Micromax Informatics has successfully seen off Chinese rivals on its home turf, which is now being hailed as the world’s most important smartphone market. But to realize its lofty ambition to be a top five global handset maker by 2020 the Gurgaon-based company will also need to sell in China. That’s exactly what Micromax plans to do, Co-Founder Vikas Jain revealed during an on-stage conversation at the RISE conference in Hong Kong. India’s smartphone market is rapidly catching up with its larger neighbour. Shipments grew 135 percent in the two years until December, five times the rate of growth in China, according to data from IDC. Micromax, which churns out over 30 new handset models a year and also makes tablets and tel...

Chinese Search Engine Baidu to Pay USD 4.9 Lakh For Unfair Competition

27May By AnkitaNo Comments

CHINA

Chinese Search Engine Baidu to Pay USD 4.9 Lakh For Unfair Competition

A court in Shanghai has ordered Chinese search engine Baidu to pay 3.23 million yuan (USD 490,000) to a Shanghai company for unfair competition. In April, Shanghai Hantao Information Consultancy Co. Ltd, operator of Dianping.com, sued Baidu and another online company Jietusoft, for copying comments and business information from Dianping.com onto Baidu's online applications and Jietusofts online map service, which caused huge losses to Dianping.com. Hantao demanded over 90 million yuan in compensation. The Pudong District Peoples Court yesterday ruled that Baidus action has decreased the number of Dianping.coms users and directed the flow to its apps, which has not only caused losses to Dianping.com, but also violated the principles of business ethics and honesty, state-run Xinhua ...

US Regulators Investigating Alibaba’s Financial Model

26May By NitishNo Comments

CHINA

US Regulators Investigating Alibaba’s Financial Model

U.S. regulators are investigating Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's accounting practices to determine whether they violated federal laws, the Chinese e-commerce giant said, sending its shares tumbling nearly 7 percent on Wednesday. Alibaba said the Securities and Exchange Commission launched the investigation earlier this year. Questions about its growth rate and its relations with affiliated companies have dogged the firm for years. It was not immediately clear what prompted the SEC investigation. Alibaba said that it was cooperating with the authorities and that the SEC advised it the investigation should not be seen as an indication the company had violated federal securities laws. The SEC focused on the accounting for logistics firm Cainiao Network, which is around 47 percent-owned ...

Chinese Investments in India Increased By Six Times

24May By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

BUSINESS

Chinese Investments in India Increased By Six Times

Chinese investments in India grew six-fold in 2015 to USD 870 million from the previous year while more investments are in the pipeline following easing of restrictions on Chinese firms and favourable tax rates, a state-run daily said ahead of President Pranab Mukherjees visit. Investment in India by Chinese companies in 2015 reportedly rose six-fold from 2014, partly thanks to low investment restrictions and favourable tax and land rent policies in the country, Global Times quoted Chinese business experts as saying. China's investment soared to around USD 870 million in 2015, six times that in 2014, the report said noting that the figure for 2015 was also twice the amount from April 2000 to the end of 2014. Indian trade officials say that the figures reflect how Chinese investments t...