Thursday, March 28

Tag: tencent

WeChat Owner Tencent’s Shares Surge Over 5%
Market

WeChat Owner Tencent’s Shares Surge Over 5%

Chinese Tech Major, Tencent Holdings shares in Hong Kong surged over 5 percent Thursday after it posted a record quarterly profit for the three months to March. WeChat owner Tencent has its market capitalisation floating at over $22 billion as shares traded at 416.4 Hong Kong dollars ($53) during afternoon trade. Even Company's online games which are intensely popular like Honour of Kings have boosted revenues by 26%. The company in its official statement said, The growth in our payment solution business was mainly contributed by the rapidly increasing offline commercial transaction volumes and consumer cash withdrawal fees. WeChat which resembles WhatsApp in functionality to a lot of extents has now become China's biggest social network. The messaging app is an important source...
Food Delivery Startup Swiggy Is Eyeing to Raise $250 Mn
News

Food Delivery Startup Swiggy Is Eyeing to Raise $250 Mn

Online Food Delivery Startup Swiggy is eyeing to raise $250 million instead of $150-200 Mn as speculated earlier. This development has come into play at a time when the Bengaluru headquartered company is seeing intense investor interest that would help the firm to amp up its valuation and raise more money. Major Technology giants such as Japanese Agglomerate SoftBank, Chinese Firm Tencent, DST Global and Alibaba are currently in talks with Swiggy though, an official confirmation has not emerged until now. Earlier in February this year, the Food Startup had earlier raised a $100 (Rs 640 crore) million in a Series F round, one of its largest round so far led by Naspers. According to some sources reported by Techcircle, a person familiar with the matter said, "The only factor which i...
Amazon becomes the 2nd most valuable company in the world
News

Amazon becomes the 2nd most valuable company in the world

Amazon just took Alphabet’s 2nd place in the standings of most valuable company in the world while Apple remains topper of the list boasting a valuation of $889 billion.   The e-commerce giant rose by 2.7 percent on Tuesday and thus lifted its stock market value to $768 billion and $1,586.51 per share. Parent company of Google, Alphabet fell by 0.4 percent and now possesses a valuation of $764.5 billion additionally, since bagging an all-time high of 1,197 per share on Jan 29, their stock value fell by 8.5%.   This achievement comes a few weeks after Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos came first in Forbes annual billionaires list with a total wealth of $112 billion and thereby becoming the first American possessing more than $100 billion.   All U.S tech mega-giants have competed vigor...
How Tencent Becomes a Bigger Social Media Platform than Facebook
BUSINESS

How Tencent Becomes a Bigger Social Media Platform than Facebook

Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings has left Facebook Inc behind it and has become the world's most valuable social network company. Tencent is the company behind China's popular WeChat messenger and is the first company in China to be worth more than $540 billion. Tencent is right now sitting on an advertising goldmine and just 18% of its total revenue in FY 2016 came from online advertising. Comparing with Facebook's model: advertising makes up 98% of its total revenue. Tencent, however works on a different business model.   Tencent- Early Start Tencent was started by Ma Huateng (aka Pony Ma) along with his four friends- Chen Yidan, Zhang Zhidong, Xu Chenye, Zeng Liqing in 1998. Its first product was launched in 1999 which was a free instant messaging PC service - OI...
Alibaba Makes Fourth Investment of $1.3 Billion To Boost Offline Retail Strategy
CHINA

Alibaba Makes Fourth Investment of $1.3 Billion To Boost Offline Retail Strategy

Alibaba Group on Sunday revealed that it will be working towards expansion of its retail footprint and has announced that it invested RMB 5.45 billion (around $867 million) for 15% stake in Beijing Easyhome Furnishing, China’s second-largest home-improvement supplies and furniture chain and invested $486 million in Shiji Retail Information Technology, for 38% stakes. “The investment will combine the strengths of the world’s largest e-commerce platform and rich offline sources of Easyhome,” Alibaba said in a statement. Alibaba has been working on its strategy- "new retail" which is aimed at combining online and offline.  As a part of this strategy, the Beijing Easyhome deal is Alibaba's fourth major investment in a brick and mortar chain after it bought majority of stakes in hypermark...
Tencent Launched China’s Cashierless Store in Shanghai
CHINA

Tencent Launched China’s Cashierless Store in Shanghai

Chinese Internet giant Tencent has opened its first cashier-less pop-up store in Shanghai in a move to tap into the country's promising unmanned retail industry. At the 300-square meter shop named We Life, shoppers can use WeChat Pay, the proprietary e-wallet of messenger app WeChat, to buy items without paying cash, swiping a card, or interacting with a single human being, according to state-run China Daily. Customers can use a phone to scan a quick response code at the gate, which enables user identification and automatic payment. All products are equipped with radio-frequency identification tags that use magnetic chips to store information such as price and inventory. The store will be open until February 4 and showcases Tencent's payment capabilities in the realm of physica...
FUNDING

SoftBank Group To Acquire More Stakes In Flipkart, Valuing It At $10B

Japanese multinational telecommunications corporation SoftBank Group has offered to buy shares from investors and former and existing employees of Indian e-commerce website Flipkart, valuing it around $9-10 billion. SoftBank has offered to buy Flipkart shares at $85-89 per share, Mint reported. The price range values Flipkart slightly lower than the pre-money valuation it clinched in two funding rounds of $1.4 billion each, one from SoftBank in August and the other from eBay Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd in April. SoftBank's move is a part of its August commitment to pick up additional stakes in the e-commerce giant. Out of the total $2.5 billion investment commitment, SoftBank will use around $1.2-1.4 billion in buying out shares of other investors and employees....
Users Opting Mobile Payments Exceed 520 Million In China
CHINA

Users Opting Mobile Payments Exceed 520 Million In China

The number of Chinas mobile wallet users has exceeded 520 million with combined payments of over USD 6 trillion, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibabas financial services affiliate said today. According to the Peoples Bank of China, Chinese banks dealt with 8.6 billion payments from mobile services in the second quarter of this year, up 40.5 per cent from a year ago. The combined value of mobile payments jumped 33.8 per cent to 39.2 trillion yuan (USD six trillion). The growth came as user-friendly platforms such as WeChat Pay encourage online transactions. Also Read Google Will Track Your Location Even When You Turn It Off!     In April, Ant Financial, Alibabas financial affiliate which runs the popular Ali Pay -- Chinas leading third-party online payment ...
Hike, Airtel Payments Bank Tie-Up For Mobile Wallet
News

Hike, Airtel Payments Bank Tie-Up For Mobile Wallet

Messaging app Hike today said it has tied up with Airtel Payments Bank to power its mobile wallet product. Hike users will have access to the bank?s vast product line including merchant and utility payments, it added. The SoftBank-backed app, which has over 100 million registered users, saw over 30 per cent month-on-month growth for its wallet service. "Through this partnership, Airtel Payments Bank gets access to over 100M (million) users on Hike and will begin powering the Hike Wallet product," Hike said in a statement. Hike Messenger VP (Product) Pathik Shah said the company has seen tremendous traction on the wallet over the last few months, most of it being organic. It is on track for over 5 million transactions this month with services like Recharge and peer to peer transa...
Tencent Beats Alibaba To $500B Valuation, Overtakes Facebook
ANALYSIS

Tencent Beats Alibaba To $500B Valuation, Overtakes Facebook

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]hina’s biggest social network and gaming firm Tencent Holdings, which last week reported forecast-beating quarterly results, is close to making Malaysia the first foreign country to roll out its WeChat ecosystem, an executive told Reuters. Tencent has made a “breakthrough” in gaining an e-payment license in Malaysia for local transactions, and plans a launch early next year, senior vice president S.Y. Lau said in an interview. The move pits Shenzhen-based Tencent against rival Alibaba Group as they scramble for new growth opportunities outside China. Tencent on Tuesday became the first Asian firm to enter the club of companies with a market value of more than $500 billion, surpassing that of Facebook. “Malaysia is actually quite large in the sense that we have ...
BYJU’S Bags An Undisclosed Amount Of Funding From Tencent Holdings Ltd
FUNDING

BYJU’S Bags An Undisclosed Amount Of Funding From Tencent Holdings Ltd

Indian edu-tech startup BYJU'S has once again made headlines for raising an undisclosed amount of funding from China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd. “BYJU’S has emerged as the clear leader in the Indian education-tech sector. We share BYJU’S mission of transforming education by creating personalised learning experiences for students. We are excited to be partnering with Byju on this exciting journey” said Hongwei Chen, Executive Director of Investment and M&A at Tencent. The funding will be utilized to accelerate BYJU'S product development for new markets and enable its growth through acquisitions. “We are excited to have Tencent on board with us. This makes our strong investor portfolio even more diverse,” said Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO, Byju’s. Tenccent is a Hong Kong Stock Exchan...
Angry Birds Maker Rovio Says IPO Possible in Future Amid Acquisition Rumors
News

Angry Birds Maker Rovio Says IPO Possible in Future Amid Acquisition Rumors

Finnish mobile game and animation studio Rovio, maker of the Angry Birds game, said it could list on the stock exchange in the future, while declining comment on a media report that China's Tencent Holdings was looking to acquire the company. Technology news site The Information, citing unnamed sources, reported that Tencent was exploring a possible $3 billion bid for Rovio and also said Rovio may consider an IPO. "We and our shareholders regularly assess different alternatives to further develop Rovio," the company said in an emailed statement on Friday when asked about The Information report. "A stock exchange listing at some point in the future could be possible in order to support the continued strong growth of Rovio and its strategic targets. However, Rovio and its owners hav...