Laiwang already got the more than 10 million registered users. And their next challenge is to get more than 100 million users within the next year.

Recently the Alibaba group and the former CEO Jack Ma are strongly promoting their own IM tool 'Laiwang', but according to their announcement, the registered user of Laiwang already exceeded 10 million people now.

And Jack Ma said their next challenge will be getting more than 100 million users  within 2014. According to their announcement, its active users are rapidly increasing, and they said that its growth rate is over 500%.

And Jack Ma also said that they will be challenging toward to WeChat, and it may seem impossible, but they will make strenuous efforts the 'impossible' changing to 'possible'.

Now Laiwang is providing it Android and iOS client and Web browser version now, but its functions are almost similar to WeChat, and there is no definite difference with it.

So I think it's difficult that Laiwang will beat WeChat at this time, but Alibaba group 'Taobao' has more than 400 million users on their mobile client. So if Laiwang will focus to enhance the linkage function with such an EC solution, they will have a bright future that they can change current 'impossible' situation to 'possible'.


Source => TechWeb

Alibaba accelerated to promote their own IM tool 'Laiwang' again. They will give 2GB mobile packet to a part of users to promote it.

As I explained before, Alibaba strengthened to promote their own IM tool 'Laiwang'.

And recently, it seems that they accelerated its promotion again, they announced that they will give 2GB mobile packet to a part of their users.

To take this gift, users have to access this site and apply for.
* There is a limitation in this at this time, and the user who can get this gift is only as follows:

- China Unicom users in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Hunan.
- China Mobile users in Guandong


And on the other hand, Jack Ma repeatedly mentioned about 'Laiwang', and he also said that he is looking forward to battle with WeChat.

Furthermore, they will publish the management tool of the official account for their platform as same as WeChat or Yixin. It seems that they have not published its web site, but they already prepared it on the client side.

I can hardly imagine that Laiwang will close with WeChat as a common IM tool at this time, but Alibaba is the king of the EC market in China. So if they will focus to collaborate IM function and EC, then there may be a way.


Source => Tech Sina, Netease News-1, Netease News-2, TechWeb

Alibaba will also enter the battle of the IM market in China. They have a plan to collaborate with China Mobile.

WeChat already have about 500 million users, and Yixin also got the good start last week. So the IM market in China is becoming more and more hot, but it seems that Alibaba, who is the giant of the EC market in China, also would like to enter this battle by re-promoting their IM tool 'Laiwang'.

There are the two verifications for this.

1. Alibaba CEO sent the internal email to start the bounty system of using 'Laiwang' to the all of staff last week.
According to the leak, their bounty system is for encouraging to use 'Laiwang' to their staff, and it is said that the most potent person can get 100,000 RMB (= 16,210USD) bonus.

2. Alibaba started to consult with China Mobile the chance of collaboration in this market.
According to the insider, Alibaba recently started to consult the possibility of collaboration with China Mobile by this 'Laiwang', and it may be that they would like to follow the success of Yixin.


Alibaba already acquired 18% share of Sina Weibo on April, and they already started to accelerate their social media solutions. But they may would like to get the killer tool of IM to accelerate more this area, so I think that its action is very natural.

But its Sina Weibo also have their IM tool 'Meyou', and a company that Sina invested before also recently publish the IM tool 'WeMeet'.

Alibaba and Sina will go to the each way in this area, or also will have the collaboration as same as Weibo... We have to continue watching their actions as ever.


Source => TechWeb, BiaNews

Alibaba and Sina formally co-announced that Alibaba will acquire 18% share of Sina Weibo in 586 million USD.

Today, Alibaba and Sina formally come to an agreement that Alibaba will invest in Sina Weibo, and Alibaba will acquire 18% share of Sina Weibo.

The press release by Sina said:


The two companies will cooperate in the areas of user account connectivity, data exchange, online payment and online marketing, among other things, and will explore new business models for social commerce based on the interactions of the hundreds of millions of users on Weibo and on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms. The strategic alliance is expected to generate approximately $380 million in advertising and social commerce services revenues in aggregate for Weibo over the next three years.

　　Separately, the Company announced that Alibaba, through a wholly owned subsidiary, has invested $586 million to purchase preferred and ordinary shares representing approximately 18% of Weibo on a fully-diluted basis. SINA has also granted an option to Alibaba to enable Alibaba to increase its ownership in Weibo to 30% on a fully-diluted basis at a mutually agreed valuation within a certain period of time in the future.


As I explained before, the rumor of this investment existed from last year. But because Sina Weibo provided their own payment system "Weibo Wallet", and there are some reasons, so it was said that the possibility of this rumor was slowing down.


Let's continue watching their specific action from now on.


Source => Press Release, Sina Tech

Alibaba released the new smartphones that was adopted their customized OS with Chinese mobile vendors. They will accelerate the cooperation with Apps developer in this year.

Aliyun(It's a group company of Alibaba) has provided own customize mobile OS since September 2011, but they released the new smartphones that was adopted its OS with Chinese mobile vendor yesterday.

The vendor who provide these smartphones at this time are: Zopo, AMOI, GFIVE, KONKA, XLJ. And a part of these new smartphones are already introduced at corporate page of Aliyun.

The price zone of these smartphones are 799 to 1399 RMB(= 128 to 224 USD). And all of smartphones adopted quad-core CPU and 1GB RAM, so it can be said that the cost performance of these smartphones are very high.

And in the event, they said that they will accelerate the cooperation with apps developer in this year. Specifically, they will invest 1 billion RMB(= 160 million USD) for the cooperation with apps developer in this year. And they also said that they will pay 1 RMB per 1 units as the incentive to the mobile vendor who will adopt the Yun OS.


Yun OS is generally recognized as the Android based customize OS, but Alibaba said that it's not true. They said that Yun OS is the Linux based customize OS, and it is compatible with Android (apps). And according to the some resources, the apps that was developed on Android can run on Yun OS, but the apps that was developed on Yun OS can't run on Android.


Anyway, we have to continue watching their actions as ever.


Source => Sohu IT, WEST-E,  SXdaily

Sina Weibo enter into the mobile payment market. Do they have a chance of success?

Sina Weibo published their own payment system "Weibo Wallet" last December, but recently they also published its service for mobile users.

Now they provide only the Android client and mobile browser version, but they said that they will also provide its iPhone and Windows client soon.

I downloaded the Android client and tried it.

  

It can be charged the money from bank, mobile phone and so forth, and the user can pay the electric, water and gas bills from it as same as the PC version.


According to the recent report by CNNIC, mobile payment user is rapidly increasing in China. Furthermore, MIIT estimated that the scale of mobile payment market in China will be about 24 billion USD in 2013, and its market will continue 40% growth in the next few year.

Sina Weibo would like to monetize soon, and also in the view of its market growth, it's make sense that they will enter into the mobile payment market. But there are many strong rival like Alipay in this market. Furthermore, Unionpay and each banks are also watching vigilantly for a chance.

Sina Weibo have over 500 million users now, so "Weibo Wallet" user may be smoothly increasing. But the view of real business, I think that they will continue facing the tough challenge for a while. Let's keep attention to their actions.


Source => Weibo Wallet, ChinaIRN

Alibaba rumored that they would like to get 15-20% stock of Sina Weibo.

According to the some news source,  the biggest EC company in China Alibaba rumored to make an investment in Sina Weibo.


Now the enterprise value of Sina Weibo is estimated 2-3 billion USD, but Alibaba rumored that they wish get 15-20% stock of Sina Weibo.

Sina Weibo is a group company of Sina group, but they are a independent company to provide Weibo services.


I think this investment is good for both side.

Firstly, Sina Weibo would like to accelerate their monetization, and EC business on their Weibo is the one of key factor to do it. Actually, they already started some investment for the EC business, but they don't have enough environment compared to Tencent.

On the other hand, Alibaba is the top position of B2B EC market in China, and its group company Tmall and Taobao are the top position of consumer EC market in China. But the other EC company is also catching up with them day by day, so they would like to add the platform of EC. Furthermore, Sina Weibo have 400 million users in the third quarter, so it will be a strong marketing platform for them.


This is the stage of rumor, but this may be surprisingly decided more quickly than our expectation.

Source => IT home, Tencent IT

Alipay achieved the trade of 19.1 billion RMB in one day on "Single Day" sales. [Infographic]

In China, November 11 is a day called "光棍节(Singles Day)" for people who are living the single life. The largest online payment service "Alipay" achieved the trade of 19.1 billion RMB in one day on that day. Next infographic is the time series of this achievement.

0:10  Their transaction amount hit 250 million RMB.

0:37  Their transaction amount hit 1 billion RMB.

1:10  Their transaction amount hit 2 billion RMB.

2:19  Their transaction amount hit 3.37 billion RMB, and this number is total amount in the previous year.

8:16  Their transaction amount hit 5 billion RMB.

11:18  Their transaction amount hit 7.9 billion RMB, and this equal to the amount that  Cyber Monday recorded in the previous year.

13:38  Their transaction amount hit 10 billion RMB.

Total transaction amount was 19.1 billion in a day.

Other data:

1. Total amount is 19.1 billion RMB, and this breakdown is as follows:

Tmall     13.2 billion RMB

Taobao   5.9 billion RMB

2. Total UV was 213 million people.

3. Total number of orders was 105.8 billion times.

Source => Tmall official account on Sina Weibo

The size of Chinese B2B EC market reached near 3.5 billion RMB in the third quarter, but its growth rate is little bit slow.

According to the report from Eguan, the size of Chinese B2B EC market reached reached 3.45 billion RMB(= 0.55 billion USD) in the third quarter.

It increased 1.8% compared with the previous period, and increased 13.1% compared to the previous year. It can be said that its growth rate is little bit slow after Q2 of 2011.


Next is the market share of B2B EC sales by each companies.

#1 Alibaba   47.4%

#2 Global Sources  9.0%

#3 HC360  4.4%

#4 Made-in-China  3.3%

#5 DHgate.com  2.0%







Alibaba still domain near half of Chinese B2B EC market, but its market share decreased 5.9 point compared with Q4,2011. Global Sources also decreased their market share, and it decreased 6.0 point compared with Q4,2011.


According to the report by eMarketer, Chinese B2C EC market is estimated high growth rate. Its growth rate is estimated increasing 94.1% compared with 2011, and the number of online buyers on the mainland will rise to nearly 220 million people this year.

B2B EC market continue slow growth rate, but Eguan said that B2B2C market will be promising market in near future. We have to keep watching the trend and action of each related companies.



Source => Eguan-1, Eguan-2, eMarketer

The sales revenue of Chinese online ads was 20.42 billion RMB in the third quarter.

According to the report from Eguan, the sales revenue of Chinese online ads was 20.42 billion RMB(= 3.24 billion USD) in the third quarter.

It was increasing 16.0% compared with the previous period, and was increasing 46.0% compared with the previous year.

The breakdown of its revenue was as follows:

Third quarter, 2012

Keyword Ads   39.8%

Banner Ads       24.8%

Email Ads            0.9%

Video Ads          19.1%

Other                  15.4%

Next is the pie chart of market share by each Ads platform vendors.

#1  Baidu      31.3%

#2  Alibaba  14.2%

#3  Google China  6.1%

#4  Tencent   4.7%

#5  Sohu         3.9%

#6  Sina          3.7%

#7  Sofun       2.4%

#8  Youku       2.3%

#9  Qihu 360  1.8%

#10  NetEase  1.2%

#11  Tudou      1.0%

Other   27.4%

Baidu dominate almost one-third market share of this area. And big 4 portal site, such as Tencent, Sohu, Sina and NetEase also ranked high order.

What will be the next trend in this area? I think that one of them is mobile Ads, and another is Ads on Weibo. Both are rapidly growing market, so we have to keep attentions these trend.

Source => Eguan 1, Eguan 2

Alipay started to provide their open platform service for corporate users.

Alipay started to provide their open platform service for corporate users yesterday.

They publish APIs of payment, accounting, billing, trade, sales and so forth. At the moment, Alipay only provide its APIs to the corporate user, but they will also provide them to the personal users in near future too.


According to the report from Eguan, Chinese online payment market size was 976.4 billion RMB(=155.04 billion USD) , and Alipay have 46.9% market share in the third quarter.

They would like to increase their partner by this open platform, and it seems that they would like to establish their firm position in the Chinese online payment market as ever.


Source => Sohu IT, Eguan-1, Eguan-2

MIIT published "2012 The Top 100 of Chinese Internet Company".

MIIT(Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China) published "2012 The Top 100 of Chinese Internet Company".

According to the report, this ranking is based their sales revenue in 2011, and their total revenue exceed 70 billion RMB(= 11.07 billion USD).


Well, I will introduce the companies that was ranking in the top 10 in its English name.

#1 Tencent
#2 NetEase
#3 Baidu
#4 Sohu
#5 SNDA  *Online game company
#6 Alibaba
#7 Wanmei  *Online game company
#8 GIANT  *Online game company
#9 BestTone  *China Telecom group
#10 Sina


The full version of top 100 ranking is as follows.

Source => Takung.cn

Chinese listed internet company analysis report

Recently, iResearch consulting group published "Chinese listed internet company analysis report".


First, this is a distribution map of those company headquarters location.

Beijing      : 22 companies (52.3%)
Shanghai   : 11 companies (27.3%)
Hangzhou  : 2 companies (4.5%)
Guangzhou : 2 companies (4.5%)
Shenzhen   : 2 companies (4.5%)
Hongkong  : 2 companies (4.5%)
Fuzhou     : 1 company (2.3%)





Next is the establishment year of each companies.

These are summary of it.

1988  Kingsoft(*1)

1997  NetEase

1998  Sina, Tencent, Sohu

1999  Alibaba, SNDA

2001  Baidu(*2)

2004  Giant

2005  Renren, Tudou, 360

2006  Youku





*1 According to their homepage, establishment year was 1989.
*2 According to their homepage, establishment year was 2000.


Next graph is their listed market.

Nasdaq  52.3%
NYSE     22.7%
HKEx     18.4%
SSE         2.3%
SZSE       4.5%




Next graph is the listed year of each companies.

These are summary of it.

2000  Sina, Sohu, NetEase

2004  Tencent, SNDA

2005  Baidu

2007  Giant, Kingsoft, Alibaba

2010  Youku

2011  Tudou, 360, Renren




Last is a graph of their market cap and sales growth rate.

Tencent : 51.75 billion RMB (sales growth rate 45.0%)
Baidu    : 40.07 billion RMB (sales growth rate 83.1%)
NetEase :  7.69 billion RMB (sales growth rate 131.9%)
Sina      :  3.34 billion RMB (sales growth rate  19.9%)
Youku   :  2.38 billion RMB (sales growth rate 131.9%)

* Alibaba, SNDA, TOM, CRIC and china.com were already delisting.


Source => 91.com

Mobile payment registered user in China already exceeded 10 billion people.

According to the report by Eguan, mobile payment registered user in China already exceeded 10 billion people.

And its market share in the first quarter was as follows:

#1 Alipay   61.8%
#2 Tenpay  18.9%
#3 99bill    10.0%
#4 Yeepay    3.3%
#5 IPS         1.6%
#6 Chinabank 0.8%
#7 PayEase   0.9%






As you know, Alipay is a one of Alibaba group company as same as Taobao, their group still have strength in EC or related industry.

And Tenpay is a one of Tencent group company, I'm interested in the fusion of their social business and payment one in the future.


And the whole market share of payment was as follows in the first quarter:

The third position of China Unionpay is also big company of payment industry.
And they announced they will accelerate their mobile solution recently, so we have to pay attention their action as ever too.


Original article => Eguan

The current situation of Chinese Internet industry. [INFOGRAPHIC]

Following is a infographic written about "The current situation of Chinese Internet."

The number of internet users:
#1  China  513 million
#2  U.S.    245 million
#3  India   121 million
#4  Japan  101 million
#5  Brazil   79 million


The feature of internet user in China.

- Male : Female = 55% : 45%
- 10 - 40 years old user is accounting for 80% of all.
- Access internet 2.7 hours per a day.
- .com 47% , .cn 45%, other 8%




E-Commerce:

- Market scale = 6 trillion RMB(0.95 trillion USD)
- Annual growth rate = 45%
- The number of online shopping user = 190 million people
- The number of joint purchasing provider = 6000

C2C provider TOP3   B2C provider TOP3
#1 Taobao  90%           Tmall    49%
#2 PaiPai     9%           360buy 18%
#3 Eachnet   1%           Amazon  2%

B2B provider TOP3
#1  Alibaba   55%
#2  Global sources   11%
#3  HC360   6%

Alipay users = 600 million users
The number of trading = 11 million times



Search market:

-The number of search = 35 million per an hour
- Baiud and Google dominate 95% of it.





Social Media:

- The number of Instant Messenger user = 450 million people
- The number of Weibo user = over 300 million
- 50% of Chinese people have at least one social media account.
- 30% of Chinese people login the social media at least once everyday.

- Yao Chen have over 15 million followers in Sina Weibo.

- LBS provider "Jiepang" have 1.4 million users.

- The number of online video users are over 400 million people.

- Hudong is registered over 6 million items.
* Hudong is a site similar to Wikipedia.









Original article => 199it

Taobao have over 100 million mobile users now. [INFOGRAPHIC]

Taobao is a biggest EC marketplace in China, but now they have over 100 million mobile users.

In the first quarter, its mobile user increased 15 million people, and it's estimated that its mobile user will be over 200 million in the end of 2012.










The ratio of its Mobile user and PC user is  1 to 5, so it means Taobao PC user exists over 500 million people.







The half of its mobile users use PC at the same time.










Its mobile user become the most active in the weekend.











Recently women buyer is especially increasing, and the category of women clothes and shoes are rapidly increasing sales.








Android V.S. iOS in March

Android 42%
iOS       58%
(iPhone 47%, iPad 11%)






Which users are buying items more?

1. The amount of items
Android   37%
iOS         63%
(iPhone 49%, iPad 14%)

2. The amount of money
Android    22%
iOS         78%
(iPhone 58%, iPad 20%)




Original article => Sina Weibo

Alibaba still dominate over half share of Chinese BtoB EC market.

According to the report by Eguan, Alibaba still dominate over half share of Chinese BtoB EC market, and their share was 53.3% as in the last quarter of 2011.

#2 is the Global Sources(15.0%),  #3 is HC360(4.2%).



And its market scale was 3.111 billion RMB(0.492 billion USD).

But its revenue increased only 0.8% compared to previous period.

Eguan analyzed its slow growth in the last quarter of 2011 caused foreign market's slowdown, but domestic market is still expanding, so its market will be offering promising prospects.


Though Alibaba is still ongoing negotiation to buy back treasury stock from Yahoo now, we will also have to keep attention whether Alibaba can continue to leave all the other runners far behind as ever.


Original article => Eguan-1, Eguan-2