
China’s Internet Boom Starts to Fade - shahocean
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-22/as-nasdaq-soars-china-s-alibaba-led-dot-com-boom-starts-to-fade
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GreaterFool
"The Shanghai Composite rose 0.7 percent to 3,641.83 at 9:48 a.m. local time,
heading for a ninth day of gains, the longest winning streak since 2007."

I like the use of the term "winning streak". No need to pretend it's more than
gambling*

I hate articles that perpetuate the notion that share price is the ultimate
raison d'etre.

*this is not supposed to be an absolute statement. it is to be taken with a pinch of salt!

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Supposedly, they are finally cracking down on inside trading and the market
will become more of a reliable place to make money without guangxi. So it is
more like gambling with fair odds vs. having the cards all stacked against
you.

~~~
notsurewhat2
>Cracking down on insider trading, no longer needing guangxi

Wumaos are on HN now?

~~~
hobs
Calling a contribution astroturfing is a fairly serious accusation, and
signing up a new account to do it shows that I doubt you believe that.

------
contingencies
Wechat is literally used by everyone in remotely major Chinese cities (say all
cities with a population of 3+ million) these days. People that meet ask "Do
you have wechat?" instead of "What's your phone number?". Sure, it might not
generate any money, but suggesting they are fading is absolutely patently
false in my experience: they have virtually achieved _total market dominance_.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
> they have virtually achieved total market dominance.

Of the PRC market.

[http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/technology/enterprises/article...](http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/technology/enterprises/article/1741792/tencent-
scraps-wechat-global-expansion-plans)

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jhancock
This article is mostly about stock market numbers. Ok, its from Bloomberg.

I don't think its useful to use words like boom and fade when your writing
about companies that have been doing well for 10+ years: Alibaba, Sina/Weibo,
Tencent, Baidu, Tudou.

Hard to say what kind of future Sina/Weibo and video streaming companies Youku
Tudou could have...I guess similar to Twitter and Youtube. Alibaba and Tencent
could have a good shot at being world leading banks over the next 10 years
among the things they already do well. The stock market may not see its fair
shake on these deals, but users in and out of China are getting benefits.

China's Internet companies are growing fine from my perspective as a consumer
of online services and as a person building companies here. Software
development and management gets better year over year. In the IT space, there
seems to be organic evolution of treating employees better. More people are
practicing taking risk in creating companies.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Bloomberg is blocked in China, so it has to be credible (otherwise, why would
the Chinese government block it?).

Most of these internet properties are practically restricted to operating in
the sheltered mainland China market, so they'll have a different future from
the more international Twitter and Youtube. The Chinese market is cut throat,
and all the clones that operate here have super small margins as a result.
WeChat announced just this week that they were giving up on international
expansion.

The question is: can these services exist in China alone, without the more
stable revenue streams that come with a more diverse international market?

> China's Internet companies are growing fine from my perspective as a
> consumer of online services and as a person building companies here.
> Software development and management gets better year over year. In the IT
> space, there seems to be organic evolution of treating employees better.
> More people are practicing taking risk in creating companies.

I agree. Gone are the days of making your software developers clock in with
time cards and mandatory Saturday work days...well, at least at most
companies.

~~~
ttflee
> why would the Chinese government block it

So far as I remember, Bloomberg reported some taboos about corruption scandal
of The First Family of China.

[http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/04/us-china-
censorshi...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/04/us-china-censorship-
bloomberg-idUSBRE86306820120704)

~~~
chkuendig
That's not completely true. They actually also pulled a very big story to not
endanger their financial data business in the country:

\- [http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/03/bloomberg-
editor...](http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/03/bloomberg-editor-quits-
over-china-story-185626.html)

[http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d121fd70-49f2-11e3-9a21-00144...](http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d121fd70-49f2-11e3-9a21-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=intl#axzz2wtsffALG)

They lost a lot of credibility when covering on Chinese matters due to this
incident.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Well, to be fair, only CNN isn't blocked now. Everyone else just aren't
harmonious enough.

~~~
LiweiZ
Harmony has been replaced by Dream of China already. lol

~~~
ttflee
And the New Norm.

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haosdent
I don't think so.

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notastartup
I think there is another boom that is fading, a potentially more serious one
that is China's housing market. It is flooded with supply. Capital flight to
the West, with property developers defaulting on debt, li kai shing (richest
HK dude) dumping all his assets in China a while ago. The fading or faltering
of the tech sector could be related but who knows, this is a government that
likes to keep a blanket over everything.

