Alibaba (BABA)/ 9988 HK; Jack Ma 01 (May 08 - Apr 16)

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Alibaba set on HBO PLAY

Alibaba Group Holding will launch an ONLINE VIDEO STREAMING service in China in about two months, hoping to emulate the United States' Netflix and HBO, the firm's head of digital entertainment said.

The service will be called TBO, or Tmall Box Office, with content from China and other countries, as well as in-house productions, Patrick Liu Chunning said in Shanghai.

TBO will launch into a competitive ONLINE video market in China, where companies are spending billions of dollars to buy media content to attract enough viewers to become dominant.

Alibaba's new service will go up against the likes of Tencent Holdings (0700), Baidu's iQiyi, Sohu.com, and Leshi Internet Information & TECHNOLOGY Corp Beijing, or LeTV.

"Our mission, the mission of all at Alibaba, is to redefine home entertainment," said Liu. "Our goal is to become like HBO in the United States, to become like Netflix."

Unlike the majority of domestic rivals, about 90 percent of TBO's content will be paid for, either by monthly subscription or on a SHOW-by- show basis, Liu said.

The remaining 10 percent would be FREE.

Netflix itself is also considering an entry into China, a notoriously difficult task for foreign INTERNET companies.

Source: REUTERS

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馬雲1.8億購美國布蘭登公園
http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/internati ... 1435308428

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Alibaba Shares Hit Record Low As China Rout Continues

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/07/ ... d=yahoo_hs

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Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE:BABA) will be releasing earnings on Wednesday, August 12.

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Alibaba Earnings Preview: 2 Trades for BABA Stock

Alibaba looks like it could swing either way after it reports earnings. Be prepared for either event.

By Joseph Hargett

Source: Investor Place

http://investorplace.com/2015/08/alibab ... cnGztIirIU

[winston]

Alibaba posts earnings of 59 cents a share vs 58 cents expected

Alibaba delivered quarterly earnings that topped analysts' expectations on Wednesday, but revenue was light.

The Chinese e-commerce giant posted fiscal first-quarter adjusted earnings of 59 cents a share.

Revenue rose to $3.27 billion from $2.54 billion a year ago.

The drop in revenue growth came as gross merchandise volume (GMV)—the total value of goods transacted across Alibaba's platforms—rose 34 percent, also rising at its slowest pace in more than three years.

Wall Street had expected the company to deliver adjusted earnings 58 cents a share on $3.39 billion in revenue, according to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters.

Shares of Alibaba were lower in premarket trading immediately following the report.

A move by the Chinese government to devalue the yuan on Tuesday has raised questions about a tangible slowdown in the country's economy that could lead to impacted earnings for companies like Aliababa.

Last week the Chinese e-commerce company announced the launch of an English-version of its fake hotline. The move is meant to combat its reputation for selling knock-off products, especially after it signed exclusive deals with international retailers.

Shares of Alibaba have dipped about 17 percent since its IPO last September.

Source: CNBC

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Sales miss for Alibaba

Mainland e-comerce giant Alibaba more than doubled its net profit to US$4.97 billion (HK$38.7 billion) in the three months to June 30, due to exceptional gains, it said yesterday, but sales growth was less than expected.

Revenue rose 28 percent to US$3.27 billion in the fiscal first quarter from the same period a year ago. Analysts expected sales of US$3.39 billion. In pre-session electronic trading Alibaba shares fell nearly 5 percent.

Meanwhile, Alibaba is reportedly planning to invest over US$10 million in Sina Sport a unit of Sina Corp. Sina Sport will then seek a spin-off listing in Hong Kong.

Alibaba got in touch with Sina two years ago for possible investment in the sport and video sectors, spending US$586 million to acquire 18 percent of Sina Weibo in 2013.

Source: REUTERS

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Analysts cut Alibaba share price targets as China e-commerce growth slows

Analysts have cut their price targets for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd shares after the stock fell to a post-flotation low on Wednesday on weak earnings and concerns over China's economy.

Alibaba's shares are now at $73.38, hovering just above their initial public offering price of $68. The average target price fell from $106.82 on Tuesday to $99.09 on Thursday, according to a Thomson Reuters survey of 46 analysts.

Of those analysts, 41 recommend buying Alibaba shares. None suggest selling, though the company has lost over $100 billion of market capitalization since its November high.

But behind Alibaba's disappointing earnings is a larger threat to the company: the number of online shoppers is beginning to top off, even in the relatively new mobile e-commerce space.

The challenge facing Alibaba is how to encourage shoppers to buy more, even as China's economy grows at its slowest rate in three decades, hitting everything from manufacturing to consumption.

"The boost they've been getting is probably slowing because there are not as many non-mobile shoppers who will convert," said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting in Beijing.

Plaguing the e-commerce company are a variety of factors. Growth of revenues and the total value of goods transacted across Alibaba's platforms was the slowest in over three years.

The firm has embarked on several projects to keep new users and money pouring in. It is expanding internationally, trying to bring China's untapped rural population online and offering Internet TV, film and music.

On Monday, Alibaba said it would invest in a brick-and-mortar retailer, to link up offline and online shopping.

Despite these efforts, the population of online shoppers is beginning to peak. The number grew 13 percent to 374 million in the year to June, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). Two years earlier, it had grown 29 percent.

Alibaba executives have touted the boom in mobile shopping as a new vein of customers to tap, but there the slowdown is even more drastic. Mobile e-commerce is also less profitable than on personal computers.

In the year to June 2014, the number of mobile shoppers rocketed 168 percent to 205 million. That population grew by one third in the next 12 months.

"Often there's some dividend left in untapped penetration, existing users who've not adopted online shopping yet," said Marbridge's Natkin.

"The closer we get to the maximum penetration rate, then the company should expect to not enjoy that dividend going forward."

Source: Reuters

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Is It Time To Go Long On Alibaba?

By Rakesh Sharma

http://www.thestreet.com/story/13255639 ... _ven=YAHOO

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Alibaba Group Holding saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of July.

As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 58,368,963 shares, a growth of 7.0% from the July 15th total of 54,558,185 shares.

Based on an average daily volume of 9,626,289 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.1 days.

Currently, 2.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Source: MB Daily