JD.com Formally Launches Cross-border E-commerce Platform

Chinese B2C e-commerce provider JD.com formally launched its cross-border Internet shopping services, which allows Chinese users to conveniently purchase quality products from many countries and regions such as the U.S., France, U.K., and Japan. This new platform will first offer over 150,000 kinds of products and 1,200 brands in 450 stores. Those products cover maternal […]

China’s Baidu Bids Sayonara To Japanese Search Engine

Following several years’ operation in the Japanese market, Chinese search engine company Baidu announced a decision to close its Japanese search engine service Baidu.jp. A spokesperson from Baidu confirmed that the Japanese search engine has been shut down. However, the spokesperson quoted in local Chinese media said they will not rule out the possibility to […]

Japanese E-commerce Firm Makes Chinese Rebate Investment

Japan-based Rakuten has taken a minority stake in Fanli.com, one of China’s online rebate and rebate-based flash sale companies. The C-series round values the Chinese online shopping company at approximately USD1 billion. As part of this investment, Kevin H. Johnson, CEO of Ebates, a Rakuten Group company, will join Fanli’s board of directors. Rakuten’s investment […]

Chinese E-commerce Customer Complaints Up 174.4% In Q1 2015

Consumer complaints during the first quarter of 2015 for Internet shopping increased by 174.4% year-on-year to 24,100 cases, according to statistics published by State Administration for Industry and Commerce of China. The State Administration revealed that China’s nationwide industry and commerce administrative units received a total of 1.701 million consumer complaints, reports and inquiries in […]

China’s Leading Classified Information Websites Announce Merger

Chinese lifestyle service platform 58.com announced a merger with its classified information listings competitor Ganji.com. According to the agreement, 58.com will acquire an approximately 43.2% fully diluted equity stake in Ganji.com for a combination of share consideration and cash, including approximately 34 million newly issued ordinary shares and USD412.2 million in cash. Meanwhile, the two […]

Google Freezes Chinese Websites And Certificate Authority

Thousands of Chinese websites will soon be marked unsafe by Google’s Chrome browser. Adam Langley, a Google security engineer, says, “On Friday, March 20th, we became aware of unauthorized digital certificates for several Google domains. The certificates were issued by an intermediate certificate authority apparently held by a company called MCS Holdings. This intermediate certificate […]

Alibaba Becomes Exclusive Distributor For BMG In China

BMG, a music business subsidiary of Germany’s Bertelsmann Group, has signed an exclusive online music distribution agreement for the Chinese market with Alibaba. Under the agreement, Alibaba will become the exclusive online distributor of BMG music and artists in the Chinese market. Alibaba will sell those products on its own platforms such as Xiami.com. In […]

Yandex Teams With Chinese E-commerce For Cross-Border Payments

Chinese and Russian technology companies plan to jointly launch an e-commerce platform which aims to promote the cross-border trading between China and Russia. Russian online payment system Yandex.Money will start handling payment services for China online payment platform TradeEase. This project is expected to be launched in summer of 2015 and its turnover is expected […]

China’s Cheetah Mobile Acquires MobPartner For USD58 Million

China’s Cheetah Mobile has acquired the entire stake in the global mobile marketing company MobPartner for USD58 million. The payment will be reportedly realized in cash and stock. Fu Sheng, chief executive officer of Cheetah Mobile, said that by integrating Cheetah Mobile’s large and increasing mobile traffic with MobPartner’s global advertiser resources, leading mobile advertising […]

Amazon’s Flagship Store On Tmall.com Begins Trial In China

Amazon China Z.cn announced that its official flagship store on Tmall.com has started trial operation and will be formally launched in April 2015. This flagship store will initially provide Chinese netizens with directly procured imported products, including shoes, food, wine, kitchenware, and toys. Products sold on Amazon’s Tmall flagship store will be delivered via Amazon […]

What Twitter Can And Can’t Do In Hong Kong As It Views China

Hong Kong’s geographic proximity to mainland China belies the gulf in business practices, Internet laws, and access that Twitter will find between the refined transparency of Hong Kong and the nuances and perils of the mainland Chinese Internet sector. Twitter announced plans this week to open an office in Hong Kong. Though the company says […]

What’s The Future For Taxi Apps In China?

On Valentine’s Day, two of China’s taxi-hailing apps agreed to merge. But is this a good business decision and does it benefit consumers in China? China’s two leading taxi-hailing apps Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache jointly announced on February 14, 2015, that the two companies will realize a strategic integration and they will hold an […]

Game Over For Zynga’s Beijing Office

American game developer Zynga announced that the company will close its office in Beijing. Zynga announced the decision while publishing its performance report for the fourth quarter of 2014. The company said that they will cut the 71 jobs in Beijing office and the related expense of USD7 million will be included in the first […]

Chinese Internet Company Sets Domain Name Record With USD17 Million Purchase

How much is a good website domain name worth these days? An insider from Qihoo 360 confirmed that the company has invested USD17 million, which is about CNY110 million, to acquire the top-level domain 360.com. This top-level domain was previously owned by telecom carrier Vodafone. At present, the domain has directed to Qihoo 360’s search […]

Possible Class Action Suit Against Alibaba For Disclosure Failures

Alibaba and its executives may feel the sting of American jurisprudence as law firms line up for possible class action lawsuits in the United States against the Chinese e-commerce company. At least five law firms so far have expressed intentions to commence class actions against Alibaba. For example, a complain from Robbins Geller Rudman & […]

Facebook To Establish Office In Taiwan

Facebook will reportedly set up a new office in Taiwan which will be engaged in platform advertising sales.

Is China Mobile Now Competing With Whatsapp And Wechat?

Chinese information technology solutions provider Ultrapower’s wholly-owned subsidiary is helping China’s biggest mobile provider compete with instant messaging apps like Facebook’s Whatsapp, Tencent’s Wechat, and Apple’s iMessage.

Kingsoft, Huaduo Group Sign Online Game Cooperation Agreement

Kingsoft Corporation Limited signed a joint operation framework agreement for games with Huaduo Group.

Nokia Here To Provide Overseas Map Data For Baidu

Chinese search engine company Baidu recently reached an agreement with Nokia to provide map services to Chinese users outside China as Baidu aims to develop international businesses through mobile services.

Beijing Subway Vulnerability Can Disrupt Normal Transportation Operation

Crushing masses of people, airborne viruses, and smelly air are not the only threats for travelers on Beijing’s subway system as a hacker has revealed a new technology exploit that can bring havoc to the capital city’s underground transportation maze.

Suning Appoints Management Committee Chairman For PPTV

China’s Suning announced plans to increase its strategic investment in PPTV, a Chinese video website. At the same time, its board of directors appointed Fan Zhijun, executive president for Suning in East China, as chairman of the management committee at PPTV. Suning said that over the past year of transition, the strategic integration of PPTV […]

Baidu Also Wants To Own China’s Offline Reading World

If China’s top Internet search engine controls Chinese literature the way it delivers Internet search results, be prepared for Baidu.com to censor, misrepresent, and deliver books to Chinese readers in a way only a book-burner could love. Baidu is now extending its government-influenced Internet monopoly into the Chinese literature sector. Baidu Literature announced its establishment […]

58.com Delivers Common Chores Direct To Chinese Consumers

Chinese classified information website 58.com announced the launch of a new housekeeping service brand named “58 Daojia” and appointed Chen Xiaohua, chief strategy officer of 58.com, as chief executive officer of “58 Daojia”. 58 Daojia provides location-based service booking, on-site services, and online payment and reviews. This project was initially launched in July 2014. Currently, […]

Xiaomi Invests USD10 Million In Youku-Tudou

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi announced that the company plans to invest USD10 million to purchase shares of Youku-Tudou from the secondary market, which will enable the playing of Youku-Tudou contents on Xiaomi devices. Xiaomi will also buy Youku-Tudou shares from the open market. The two parties will make a joint investment of an unknown sum […]

NetEase Closes Chinese Blog Services

Chinese Internet portal NetEase.com announced that the company will officially close its blog services and recommends users to move their blogs to LOFTER, a microblog service at NetEase. According to NetEase, the blogs moving to LOFTER will maintain the same contents. Meanwhile, the company will completely shut down its blog services in the coming weeks. […]

Renren Kills Non-core Chinese Internet Businesses

Chen Yizhou, chief executive officer of Renren, says the company is planning to sell some non-core businesses to improve their profitability and they are also considering investment and expansion opportunities in America and Hong Kong. Chen revealed during an interview with local Chinese media that under the current model it is hard for the company […]

JD.com Teams With China Post To Expand O2O To Small Chinese Towns

Chinese B2C e-commerce website JD.com and China Post Group have reached a strategic deal to jointly develop an e-commerce platform targeting cities below third-tier size in China. With the cooperation, JD.com will provide various products, including PCs, digital products, home and kitchen supplies, and cosmetics, for China Post’s “people-benefit project”. Those products will reach 13 […]

Facebook Hits The Same Wall As Apple In China

The leaders of Facebook and Apple were in China this past week on separate missions with the same goal: gain better transparency and more access to the Chinese market. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was in Beijing for an event at a local university, and Apple’s Tim Cook met with Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai to review […]