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Is Snapchat getting $200 million from China's online shopping giant?
Think you get a lot of value out of Snapchat's disappearing messages, payments and stories? You're not the only one. Bloomberg sources claim that Alibaba, China's online shopping behemoth, plans to invest $200 million into Snapchat on the assumption that it's worth $15 billion. That doesn't even include separate talks that are reportedly bent on raising another $500 million. It's not certain why Alibaba is so interested in the service, although its stake in smartphones is probably a big clue. The company wants to promote mobile shopping and otherwise get a foothold on your phone, and services like Snapcash would go a long way toward making that happen.
Amazon opens a store on its Chinese rival's marketplace
Amazon is willing to do a lot to gain a competitive edge... including setting up shop on a big rival's home turf, apparently. The online shopping giant has launched a store on Tmall, Alibaba's China-focused marketplace. The move requires that Amazon give Alibaba a cut of any sales, which is unusual for an internet retailer that likes to operate on thin profit margins. However, it's clear that Jeff Bezos and crew are primarily interested in getting their foot in the door. Amazon doesn't have that much clout in China compared to Alibaba, which is worth more than Amazon and eBay combined -- a Tmall storefront will at least remind Chinese customers that an American alternative exists.
Chinese giant Alibaba making a 'strategic investment' in smartphones
What do you do when you're the biggest online retailer in the world, with an IPO valued at more than Amazon and eBay, combined? You do all kinds of things, but you also decide to throw some substantial cash into a smartphone maker. In this case, Alibaba says it's buying a minority stake in Meizu for $590 million -- making its recent $10 million investment in OUYA look like spare change. According to a joint statement from both Meizu and Alibaba, it'll help the web giant spread its own mobile operating system (Aliyun) through Meizu's smartphones (keeping the customers coming the Alibaba's myriad services), while giving the phone maker better sales clout and visibility.
Drones are delivering tea in China
Hey, DHL: you're not the only one who can bring drone-based delivery to honest-to-goodness customers. Alibaba's online marketplace, Taobao, is running a real-world test that lets 450 people in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai order ginger tea and receive it from a UAV in less than an hour. The service will only be available from February 4th through February 6th, but it'll represent one of the first practical instances of delivery-by-drone in major urban areas. Sadly, you probably won't see something like this happen in the US for a while -- companies like Amazon are threatening to take their drone tests abroad because of government restrictions.
OUYA confirms further moves into China with Alibaba deal
Is Chinese giant Alibaba investing $10 million into California-based game console maker OUYA? That report remains unconfirmed, but OUYA did confirm this morning that Alibaba is getting the OUYA game library on its YunOS platform. Sorry, the what platform? It's essentially a version of Android that was created by Alibaba, intended to compete with Android in China. So does that mean OUYA is heading to smartphones in China? Not quite.
Report: Ouya gets $10 million investment from Alibaba
Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba invested $10 million into microconsole maker Ouya last month, The Wall Street Journal reported. The two companies have seemingly agreed to bring Ouya's software and game library to Alibaba's set-top box. Ouya announced its Ouya console-less ambitions in March 2014, dubbed "Ouya Everywhere." The initiative allows Ouya to run its software on other devices, starting with Mad Catz's MOJO microconsole. Ouya raised $8.6 million on Kickstarter in 2012, first launching in July 2013. The system didn't generate much revenue for developers as just 27 percent of Ouya owners purchased a game in its first month. Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman would not confirm Alibaba's investment, but did tell Engadget that the company has "been working with partners to bring our platform and games library to their devices." She said that Ouya is "live with Madcatz in the US and working with Xiaomi in China. There are a number of others in the works, with our focus outside the US because there is where we see the most opportunity and growth. Sometimes new markets leapfrog the established ones -- this may be one of those cases." The Chinese government lifted its 14-year ban on foreign consoles and video games just over one year ago, issuing a new set of content restrictions for manufacturers this past April. Reports from December found that gaming revenues in the country grew 38 percent year-over-year. The other major console manufacturers are poised to enter the emerging market: While Sony delayed the launch of the PS4 in China earlier this month, Microsoft already reportedly sold over 100,000 Xbox One systems in its introductory week back in October. Nintendo revealed plans in May to approach emerging markets such as China with new hardware this year.
B-OUYA! Guess who just got a $10 million investment from Alibaba?
Are we tired of making puns based around the silly name for the Kickstarter-funded, Android-powered, miniature game console, OUYA? No, friends. No we are not. Clearly. That aside, there's a whole nation of people who are just now hearing of OUYA for the first time: China. That's because Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba reportedly dropped $10 million into OUYA's coffers within the last month, according to The Wall Street Journal -- an investment in trade for bringing OUYA's platform to Alibaba's set-top box. That's quite an investment considering OUYA's poor-to-tepid response in the United States: "The system is rough around the edges in many ways, quite literally when regarding the controller, but the interface and menus also could use work," is what we wrote in our review from 2013. Much of those early edges were eventually smoothed, and OUYA branched out as a software platform known as "OUYA Everywhere." Xiaomi added OUYA everywhere to its set-top boxes last year, and now apparently Alibaba is looking to do something similar.
Alibaba deal could bring Apple Pay to China
Apple's mobile payment service could get a huge boost if the company can work out a deal with Alibaba, China's do-it-all megacorp. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Alibaba's Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai noted his company's desire to partner with Apple. "Right now, I think what we can say is that this is focused on the China market for Apple. We are positive about the potential cooperation, but it depends on the details being worked out," Tsai said. A deal between Alibaba and Apple would make a lot of sense given Apple's recent push to deliver new devices to the nation promptly on launch, as well as Alibaba's expertise in the Chinese e-commerce scene with its Alipay app. It would also make a lot of sense because, you know, money is good and Apple would stand to make a lot (more) of it.
Alibaba IPO makes it worth $231 billion, more than Amazon and eBay combined
We'd heard that the US IPO for Chinese company Alibaba could be among the biggest ever, and it did not disappoint. Closing at a stock price of $93.89, it raised $21.8 billion for the company and is the biggest IPO in US history. According to Bloomberg, it could become the biggest ever (topping Agricultural Bank of China's $22 billion IPO in 2010) if underwriters make use of an option to buy more shares, which market observers expect they will. Now that Alibaba has joined the club of recent tech IPOs like Facebook and Twitter and it has cash to throw around, many wonder if it will start acquiring smaller companies the way its Silicon Valley rivals have lately. Despite being mostly unknown in the US Alibaba is massive in China, operating sales platforms described as similar to Amazon, eBay and Paypal, and Reuters says it controls more than 80 percent of online sales there. Jack Ma (pictured above) founded the company in his apartment in 1999 and is now China's richest man, personally worth some $18 billion as of market close, according to the Wall Street Journal. [Image credit: PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images]
Is Snapchat really worth $10 billion?
While competitors are busy cloning Snapchat in an attempt to replicate its success, Evan Spiegel and co. have continued to forge their own path. The company is already experimenting with new features in an attempt to generate revenue, but it's also apparently talking to some big hitters to ensure it can keep growing until those profits come. According to Bloomberg, Snapchat is currently in talks over a new round of funding with investors, which include Yahoo-backed Alibaba, that if confirmed could value the company at an incredible $10 billion. It's a significant figure, not only because it puts it on par with both Dropbox and Airbnb, but it's around three times the amount Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook is rumored to have offered to acquire the company last year. Not bad for a service that's known mostly for evaporating text and photo messages. Snapchat is understandably keeping quiet about its latest round of talks, and the figures could well change before the funding closes. Regardless of what happens, it appears Snapchat's decision to hold out and grow the service was the right one.
Alibaba's massive IPO plans shift the focus from Silicon Valley to China
The recent big tech IPOs of companies like Facebook, Twitter and Tesla could all soon be dwarfed by a company with roots far outside Silicon Valley. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group just filed documents for its own offering (choosing to trade its stock in the US over Hong Kong) and while its value has not been determined, it could result in the biggest IPO ever when it's all said and done. Alibaba built its empire on a number of online sales platforms described as a blend of Amazon, eBay and Paypal, and its reach is starting to include the US, thanks to investments in companies like Lyft.
China's Alibaba bets $215 million on chat app Tango
Facebook has made it a pretty darn good time to be a messaging app maker -- just ask Tango. It's received $280 million in funding including $215 million from Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, which is looking to bolster its forces against competitor Tencent. That gives it a minority interest in the video chat app, which has 70 million active users and 200 million in total. Tango has also stretched out recently with a social platform SDK for other apps that makes it easier for users to invite friends, for instance. According to Bloomberg, Alibaba could go public as soon as next month and its investment means Tango could be worth as much as $2 billion. We'll write a witty conclusion in a second, but first we're going to go learn some coding. Update: Reuters has corrected its article to underscore that Alibaba led a $280 million investment round, but only bet $215 million of its own cash. We've updated our post to reflect that.
Alibaba develops Smart TV OS, will use it to sell you things
As much as we enjoyed the decade we spent vegging out in front of the shopping channel, we had hoped that the internet had put such days behind us. Not so, thanks to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which has developed its own Smart TV OS, separate to Aliyun, in the hope of pumping even more cash out of our wallets. Developed in collaboration with Wasu Media, the duo will launch a set-top box later in the year, and are in talks with companies like Cisco, Haier and Allwinner to produce compatible devices. While customers will be able to use smartphones to stream media and control their TVs, they'll probably be strong-armed into buying apps, shopping at the Alibaba-owned Juhuasuan and even making utility payments via the company's Alipay platform. Looks like we've got no choice but to finally buy that noiseless karaoke microphone we've been avoiding all these years.
Zopo C2 embraces Aliyun OS, boasts 5-inch 1080p display, 5MP front camera and a low price
Despite the aborted launch of Acer's Aliyun-powered phone last September, the cheeky Android-based OS is now back with a handful of new devices courtesy of some local friends, with the most notable device coming from Zopo, a notorious cloner of Samsung, HTC and LG phones. That said, it looks like the company's making a change with this seemingly good-looking C2, and for the launch price of ¥1,399 or about $230 unsubsidized, the specs will probably make Xiaomi tremble: there's a 5-inch 1080p gapless LTPS display, a MediaTek MT6589 chip (1.2GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 processor with 1GB RAM and PowerVR SGX544 graphics), 4GB internal storage with microSD expansion, Yamaha audio chip, a removable 2,000mAh battery and WCDMA 850/2100 radio with HSPA+. Furthermore, not only is there a 13-megapixel f/2.2 main camera, but there's also a staggering 5-megapixel front-facing camera on the other side -- just like the one on Oppo's Ulike 2. Oh, and these all come in an 8.5mm-thick body, too. Zopo's now accepting pre-orders for the first 5,000 C2s and will be shipping before the end of the month, so if you have an account on Tmall and don't mind being a guinea pig then go for it.%Gallery-185899%
Chinese ministry says Google 'controls too much' of its smartphone market
China and Google just can't seem to get along. The country's ministry is the latest to take issue with el Goog, stating that it has too much control within the smartphone industry because of its Android OS and is discriminating against local rivals. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced this in its recent white paper, adding that the country had the ability to craft its own mobile OS if it wanted to. According to the document: "While the Android system is open source, the core technology and technology roadmap is strictly controlled by Google." It goes on to describe how the Mountain View crew had apparently delayed sharing source code with Chinese companies developing their own operating systems. The paper also took the opportunity to praise homegrown stars like Baidu, Alibaba and Huawei for their own systems. In short, it looks like an amicable relationship is still a while off.
Trial begins for Chinese iPad, iPhone smugglers
A trial has started this week in southern China to determine the fate of a smuggling ring that brought as many as 160,000 Apple devices worth about US$80 million into the country. Sting operations were able to catch five different smuggling rings and 104 suspects. The trial this week, which is being held in the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, deals with only 25 of the suspects. Apple products are much cheaper outside of mainland China, so smugglers were buying the devices elsewhere and then bringing them into the country for sale on Alibaba's Taobao online marketplace. Electronista reports that the ring was selling up to 20,000 Apple devices a month at one point. iPhones purchased in Hong Kong are popular on the mainland, as they are often sold unlocked and can be used on China Mobile's network. China Mobile doesn't officially carry the iPhone, but has many unlocked iPhones on its network. M.I.C Gadget reported earlier this week that customs officials in Hong Kong caught smugglers attempting to bring 227 iPhone 5s, 22 iPads and a number of other products into mainland China. Those products were worth over US$129,000.
Alibaba spins out Aliyun team with $200 million investment, pep talk
You can imagine that the team building Alibaba's Aliyun mobile OS must have hurt feelings following Google's accusations that Aliyun is just a corruption of Android. Alibaba chief Jack Ma is keen to restore some of that wounded pride, at least on the surface. The CEO has used a since-confirmed staff memo to spin out Aliyun as a separate entity that will "safeguard the healthy growth" of the platform and Alibaba's mobile strategy. It's not solely an instance of tough love, either: Alibaba is putting $200 million into the new firm and will use executive Wang Jian as a link between the two sides, having him serve as the CTO for both companies. With that in mind, Ma's ultimate intentions aren't clear. While the separation may be a sign of a tighter focus on software, it also reduces the impact for Alibaba if anything drags Aliyun down -- and either motivation would be helpful for a company devoted to the web before anything else.
Yahoo starts selling half of its Alibaba stake as promised, sends $3.65 billion to giddy shareholders
Anyone who's been holding on to Yahoo shares through thick and thin is about to reap the rewards of that patience. As the company promised, it's starting to sell back half its stake in Alibaba, closing the first stage of the deal with the equivalent of $7.6 billion in pure revenue. The struggling search and content firm 'only' pockets a net $4.3 billion after taxes and other overhead costs, but it won't even see that much in its bank account: it's purposefully sending $3.65 billion of that money to shareholders, both to inspire new confidence and (unofficially) to head off activist investors like Dan Loeb that might otherwise want a coup d'état. If share owners plan on using the second stage of the sale to fund a vacation to Maui, though, they'll need to wait. Yahoo's deal prevents it from selling half of its remaining 23 percent stake unless Alibaba files for an initial public offering, and there's no guarantee that investors will see another dime of the proceeds.
Google Senior VP of Mobile: Aliyun OS 'under no requirement to be compatible', but it won't get help from Android ecosystem alliance
Andy Rubin has added another response to Alibaba's Aliyun OS, after Google's insistence that Acer put the launch of its new smartphone on pause. He focuses (again) on the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), which OEMs agree to when they work with the platform, promising to keep Android a happy (and relatively compatible) platform. Amazon dodges any similar issues with its Kindle Fire tablets, because it didn't sign up to the same alliance. Rubin says that because Aliyun uses Android's framework and tools -- as well as housing some suspect Android apps (and pirated Google programs) within its own App Store -- the mobile OS "takes advantage of all the hard work that's gone into that platform by the OHA." Google's looking to protect how Android behaves as a whole, and the senior VP suggests that if Alibaba's new OS wanted "to benefit from the Android ecosystem" then they could make the move across to full compatibility. We're still waiting to hear what Acer (and Alibaba) plan to do next. [Thanks Jimmy]
Google wants 'better compatibility' for Android, Alibaba says 'Aliyun is separate,' Acer takes the brunt of it
On Thursday, we starting hearing claims that Google had strong-armed Acer out of launching its A800 CloudMobile in China with the Aliyun operating system. We reached out to the search giant for its response, but they declined to comment. Over the last 24 hours, though, Google has attempted to explain its stance, but at the same time has potentially created some confusion about how open Android really is. Below is the initial statement received by Marketing Land: "Compatibility is at the heart of the Android ecosystem and ensures a consistent experience for developers, manufacturers and consumers. Non-compatible versions of Android, like Aliyun, weaken the ecosystem. All members of the Open Handset Alliance have committed to building one Android platform and to not ship non-compatible Android devices. This does not however, keep OHA members from participating in competing ecosystems." This is clearly outlining Google's intention to prevent forked Android spin-offs from diluting the platform and the user experience. Fair enough. The trouble seems to be, however, defining when something is Android compatible, rather than its own separate (albeit Android-based) operating system. Amazon's Kindle Fire will instantly spring to mind. The new tablets run on Ice Cream Sandwich, but are fenced-off from the official Play store and other Google offerings. As you can imagine, the debate has started to get a little heated, we go into it in more detail past the break.
