
Alibaba Buys South China Morning Post - williswee
https://www.techinasia.com/alibaba-acquires-south-china-morning-post/
======
guardiangod
I muttered 'fuck' under my breath when I read the news this morning. Not many
news can make me swear anymore these days.

As an immigrant from Hong Kong, SCMP is one of the few remaining HK media that
follows a centralist approach to news regarding China. Other HK medias have
already picked their sides, similar to MSNBC and Fox news in US.

This buyout will be a major loss to press freedom in HK, and a loss of a
rational voice to outsiders. SCMP will probably become another mouthpiece for
China's central government.

I don't for a second believe China/Alibaba will 'maintain editorial
independence.' To be successful in China, you need to have connections
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanxi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanxi))
. It is much of a 'you scratch my back, I scratch yours.' I am willing to
believe Ma is a decent man, but how can a newspaper stay independent when its
owner has to play this game?

~~~
shostack
As someone with only passing familiarity of the concept of "guanxi," is it
even possible to grow a business to that size in China and be _that_
successful _without_ being corrupt or participating in/facilitating
corruption? Or at that level of the game is it entirely possible to succeed
with "legal" forms of guanxi?

Seems like a cultural concept where to get ahead it is very much "damned if
you do, damned if you don't" because of what I imagine is an inherently
escalating nature to it.

~~~
swuecho
guanxi and corruption is not the same. you hard to do thing without guanxi
(kind of good relationship). guanxi is part of chinese culture, more like,
long term relationship.

~~~
Thriptic
Can you elaborate on what guanxi entails?

~~~
gbog
Guanxi really just mean "relation". In this context, it means long term
business relations alloing for trust and mutual respect, where each part knows
that the other part will return favors and keep the relation balanced. It
also, as a side-effect, facilitate corruption, but it does not imply it. The
Chinese have a long culture of managing social relations, so this side is very
developped, but you have the same in higher society in Europe.

------
hackuser
Yahoo owns 15% of Alibaba, making them a major shareholder. What do they say
about their assets being used to limit a free press and spread Chinese
government propaganda?

From the NY Times:[1]

 _The Alibaba Group, the Chinese Internet giant, is making an ambitious play
to reshape media coverage of its home country, taking aim at what company
executives call the “negative” portrayal of China in the Western media.

As the backbone of this effort, Alibaba agreed on Friday to buy the media
assets of the SCMP Group, including one of Hong Kong’s most influential
English language daily newspapers, The South China Morning Post. The company
is acquiring an award-winning newspaper that for decades has reported
aggressively on subjects that China’s state-run media outlets are forbidden to
cover, like political scandals and human-rights cases.

Alibaba said the deal was fueled by a desire to improve China’s image and
offer an alternative to the biased lens of Western news media outlets. While
Alibaba said the Chinese government had no role in its deal to buy the Hong
Kong newspaper, the company’s position aligns closely with that of the
Communist Party, which has grown increasingly critical of the way Western news
organizations cover China._

Of course, the South China Morning Post isn't 'Western' at all. Apparently
it's Chinese media they are really concerned with.

[1]
[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/12/business/dealbook/alibaba-...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/12/business/dealbook/alibaba-
scmp-south-china-morning-post.html)

~~~
thaumasiotes
> Yahoo owns 15% of Alibaba, making them a major shareholder.

I saw a saying somewhere that said if you owe the bank five hundred thousand
dollars, the bank owns you. If you owe the bank five hundred million dollars,
you own the bank.

Similarly, Alibaba's value is so much absurdly higher than Yahoo's that the
15% ownership stake is a burden to Yahoo-as-a-business. People have been
writing for a while about how it would be immediately profitable for Alibaba
to buy Yahoo outright in an all-stock deal, as it would take fewer shares of
Alibaba to buy all of Yahoo (Alibaba holdings included) than Yahoo currently
owns.

[http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-02/yahoo-is-
lo...](http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-02/yahoo-is-looking-for-
a-new-way-around-alibaba-taxes)

So, long story short, I can't see why Alibaba would care one way or the other
what Yahoo thinks.

------
analyst74
It's about time the powerful people in China starting to realize how the rest
of the world sees China has direct impact to them, and use their newly
acquired wealth to improve that.

For normal people, I see it being a positive change in the long run, using
money to influence public opinion is much better than using guns. Once part of
the ruling class acquire enough media-savvy to influence the public, they will
start pushing for more democratic form of government, because that gives them
more power.

~~~
shostack
Huh? The current situation seems to be working pretty well for the ruling
class over there. They control the media, and thus local public perception.
How exactly would more democratic forms of government benefit them?

~~~
analyst74
Contrary to popular belief, the CCP is not ruled by a single paramount leader
anymore, and not everyone shares the same vision or benefit from the same
policies. There are forces pulling the government to different directions,
just like different special interest groups shape US policies.

If a small group of people, especially the newly minted tech and industrial
elites (as opposed to traditional military and party elites), learnt the more
western way of influencing public opinions, they will use it as a competitive
advantage over their political competitions.

------
hackuser
Coverage in the NY Times:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/12/business/dealbook/alibaba-...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/12/business/dealbook/alibaba-
scmp-south-china-morning-post.html)

------
justaman
Interesting picture of Jack biting into [an] Apple.

~~~
pducks32
The photographer said "hey eat an apple, it'll make you look like even more of
an asshole"

------
SixSigma
Alibaba - the new Yahoo!

~~~
sremani
I think Alibaba is the Chinese Amazon, and Tencent is the new Yahoo! I am not
an expert in this but I always thought Yahoo should copy the heck out of
Tencent.

