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Thread: Jack Ma & Alibaba

  1. #16
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    Slightly OT

    Good ol' Jack Ma. I'm hoping in his charitable ventures, he'll help fund our magazine someday.

    Chinese Billionaire Buys 28K Acres of American Forest to Preserve It
    Photo of the Dayby Terry Turner - Dec 11, 2015


    Brandon Reserve screenshot LandVest Vimeo

    The Chinese billionaire behind online shopping giant Alibaba has placed an order for 28,000 acres of pristine, American wilderness – in a $28 million dollar bid to preserve wildlife, fish, and forests in the rugged mountains of the Northeast.

    Jack Ma, China’s richest man and a noted conservationist, plans to turn the Brandon Reserve in New York’s Adirondack Mountains into a wildlife sanctuary and protect its timber and water from logging and mining operations in the region.

    His first action as owner is to stop the logging operations already going on there.

    Ma’s purchase includes land along nine miles of the Saint Regis River, a trout fishery, multiple homes and barns, and even its own maple syrup operation.

    (WATCH the video from LandVest below to see the property or READ more at Town and Country) — Photos: LandVest, Vimeo
    Gene Ching
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  2. #17
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    More on Jack Ma

    Crouching Jack And His Hidden Dragons
    Team Inc42
    March 22, 2016 10 min read



    Jack Ma, the founder of China’s largest ecommerce company Alibaba, is neither a Harvard nor a Stanford graduate. He was actually rejected by Harvard, 10 times. He is just street smart, and it has worked wonders for him. At least, so far. Slowly and carefully, he has been making his move towards India, like a tiger who is waiting for the right moment to pounce on its prey.

    And it seems, he has just made the big leap. Alibaba, the NYSE listed online retailer who debuted with the world’s biggest ever IPO, has announced its entry into India. But, how he will execute this plan is not yet known.

    The country’s domestic ecommerce marketplace is already dominated by homegrown biggies like Flipkart and Snapdeal, along with a strong presence of US-based Amazon.

    Also, the Assocham report states that the Indian ecommerce market is poised to be worth $38 Bn by the end of 2016, which leaves a surfeit of opportunities for the etailers in this segment.

    Hence, it is a good time and chance for Alibaba to mark its entry in the B2C ecommerce segment, although, it has been trying to enter the Indian consumer market for a long time. In May 2015, Alibaba had reportedly tied up with Paytm to add about 1 Mn merchants from China on Paytm’s platform, along with adding 100 million SKUs. But it seems that the deal did not strike off. Though the Chinese ecommerce firm could not establish itself in the B2C space, it has been operating in the B2B ecommerce business since 2009, after it entered into a strategic partnership with Infomedia. Its B2B division is said to have over 4.5 Mn sellers on board in the country.

    In one of his statements, Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba Group, had said that

    India is a crucial market and Alibaba must have a strategy to crack it
    Enter – The Dragon

    Last week, Alibaba Group president Michael Evans and global managing director K Guru Gowrappan met Communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Tata Group’s Chairman Cyrus Mistry to share their plans for the company’s interest in India and a possible partnership.

    “It is a positive announcement for the Indian market. It is a validation that India is a high potential market. The negative impact is that there will be competition pressure, but overall it is good news,” says Brijesh Agrawal, co- founder of IndiaMART. IndiaMART competes with Alibaba in the B2B category.

    A senior government official told ET,

    Alibaba is very keen on coming to India in a very big way, particularly in the ecommerce sector. They’re only exploring the way whether to go on their own or set up shop with someone else.
    The ecommerce market in India is much ripe and ready to accommodate as many players as possible. Goldman Sachs projects that India’s online retail market will expand to $36 Bn in 2016-17, which has emerged as a significant battlefield for the world’s largest ecommerce companies.

    As per Morgan Stanley, electronics and fashion are the dominant categories in India and the online penetration in these two categories is set to increase from 3-5% in 2014 to 25-30% in 2020, resulting in an online market of $88 Bn. Therefore, analysts expect that the online shopper penetration will increase by 20% in 2017. That can surely be a turning point for ecommerce in India.

    The Upper Cut

    At present, Alibaba has a sourcing business in India and does not sell anything directly to customers. It holds 40% stake in Paytm and 5% stake in Snapdeal. And if the Chinese ecommerce firm enters India in tie-ups with such ecommerce companies, the sector would see a battle between Amazon and the rest. Also, as we see that Alibaba has reportedly approached the Tata Group to venture into the online retail market, there is a big partnership awaited in the ecommerce segment.

    “Alibaba is familiar with India. They are not late. They have their inherent strengths and a good backend. The only issue in the B2C segment for them is that whether consumers will see it as “China ka maal (product of China)”. That does not go well with the Indian consumer,” says Prof. Pradeep Pendse, Dean of e-business at Welingkar Institute of Management.

    Also, as the news for Alibaba to enter the Indian retail market brims, it is being speculated that Paytm may spin off its marketplace business and allow Alibaba to organically expand in India.

    Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm refutes any such development. In a call with Inc42, Vijay says, “We (at Paytm) are committed to growth and we are here not to sell.” He did not comment on Alibaba’s India entry.

    Industry watchers also point out to a possible buyout of Flipkart by Alibaba.

    “It is a bonanza for Flipkart. I feel Alibaba is going to buy out Flipkart. For, Alibaba to run on its own will be difficult and it has deep pockets to buy out a big player who is already well entrenched,” says Prof. Kaustubh Dhargalkar of Welingkar Institute of Management.

    When Jack Ma visited India last year, he gave a clear indication that they would enter India’s online retail market by tying up with B2C players in the ecommerce segment. During the same time, the Chinese ecommerce giant reportedly entered into a strategic tie-up with Paytm, enabling cross-platform business.

    However, if Alibaba plans to enter India on its own, like Amazon, then we are bound to see a fierce battle amongst domestic players like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm and Shopclues fighting against the US and Chinese ecommerce biggies.

    “This could be a bluff. If they threaten that they will come alone, they may be able to buy a big player out for a cheaper deal,” says an industry insider who requested anonymity.

    It should be noted here that currently India does not allow FDI in B2C ecommerce segment while it allows 100% FDI in B2B ecommerce portals, 51% FDI in multi-brand B2B segment and 100% FDI in single brand retail.

    Does It Mean That Alibaba Will Leverage Its B2B Business To Establish Its Presence In The B2C Ecommerce?

    On the other side, Alibaba has its own wallet, Alipay, and its own logistics unit, Aliexpress, which gives it an edge to establish itself on its own similar. This would mean that Alibaba will operate as Amazon works in India operating on an online marketplace model, which even has no FDI restrictions.

    “They have their own people, payment gateway, and most importantly their B2B business. The current ecommerce players are highly priced. So, they can come on their own, too,” says Arvind Singhal, Chairman and Managing Director of Technopak, a consultancy firm.

    A Ringside View

    Flipkart has raised $1.7 Bn capital to date and looks to speed up its funding in order to dodge its competitors. Flipkart was valued at $15 Bn after it raised $700 Mn in 2015. But, in February 2016, Morgan Stanley marked down the value of Flipkart’s shares by 27%, bringing down the company’s valuation to around $11 Bn.

    While Snapdeal has raised about $1.54 Bn and is valued at somewhere between $6.5-$7 Bn after it raised about $200 Mn in February 2016.

    On the other side, Alibaba is well funded with over $7.9 Bn to manage its entire business. In 2014, Alibaba raised $21.8 Bn, which was the biggest US IPO ever, which puts the company in a stronger position to take on its rivals in the country.
    continued next post
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  3. #18
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    Continued from previous post

    Who Dares, Wins

    Seeing Amazon steadily overtaking the ecommerce market in India, Amazon will be a strong contender in the ecommerce run. When Amazon entered the Indian market in 2014 under a marketplace model, it had expected good sales from the beginning. But, it took Amazon almost two years to assess the Indian market, and now it has managed to be one among the top players. It has invested about $300 Mn (INR 1,980 Cr.) and $190 Mn (INR 1,237 Cr.), in Amazon Seller Services, in February 2016 and October 2015 respectively to have a strong seller base in order to cater to a wider network of consumers. It has further committed $2 Bn investment making India its largest market outside the US.

    The company had even planned for a $5 Bn (INR 31,700 Cr) warchest for India. It is also in the race to digital wallet services. It is said to have applied for a semi-closed wallet license with the RBI.

    It this is not enough to measure Amazon’s increasing strength in the country then we can also note that Amazon has not been raising any funds to survive, unlike its counterparts.

    But What About The Indian Govt And Its Policies?

    “Alibaba will have a hell to pay for if they try to come alone. If you remember the Huawei – Airtel issue, it will be tough for a Chinese player to operate in the country on its own.There are data and privacy issues involved,” says Vivek Srinivasan, co- founder of Prudence Advisors.

    Talking about Flipkart and Snapdeal, who are still not ready for a public listing, are in desperate need of funds. Flipkart borrowed $67 Mn (INR 450 Cr) from HDFC Bank in lieu of not able to raised funds soon. It was valued at $15 Bn after it raised $700 Mn in 2015. But, in February 2016, Morgan Stanley marked down the value of Flipkart’s shares by 27%, bringing down the company’s valuation to around $11 Bn. While, Snapdeal, which has raised about $1.54 Bn till date, is valued between $6.5-$7 Bn, after it raising about $200 Mn in February 2016.

    However, the three of them are not yet profitable in the Indian terrain. Snapdeal has reported a loss of INR 1,328 Cr., Flipkart reported a loss of about INR 2,000 Cr and Amazon India reported a total loss of INR 31.7 Cr., in FY 14-15.

    eBay, on the other hand, is the oldest player in India in which entered India in 2004. But it has not managed to establish itself as a strong player.

    If these existing players are compared to Alibaba, only Amazon seems to be a tough competitor. Alibaba is well stuffed with over $7.9 Bn fund to manage its entire business. In 2014, Alibaba raised $21.8 Bn, which was the biggest US IPO ever, which puts the company in a stronger position to take on its rivals in the country.

    The time may be right. The market is well equipped and Alibaba will have the ‘second mover advantage.’ But, there will be stiff competition from its US rival Amazon. M&A options are wide open for Alibaba if it needs a little help from Jack Ma’s Indian friends- Snapdeal or Paytm. The coming days will see Indian market playing out to be a battleground for Amazon and Alibaba. Well, if Jack has to win-it-all, he should better have a few tricks up his sleeve.

    [With inputs from Dearton Hector Thomas]
    Now that TaijiZen is defunct, perhaps I should split the Jack Ma posts off into their own indie thread...
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  4. #19
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    Jack Ma said Chinese-made counterfeit goods are better than the genuine article

    Alibaba’s Jack Ma: Better-Than-Ever Fakes Worsen Piracy War
    David Ramli
    Lulu Yilun Chen
    June 13, 2016 — 10:03 PM PDT Updated on June 14, 2016 — 12:09 AM PDT


    Photographer: ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images

    Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. founder Jack Ma said Chinese-made counterfeit goods today have gotten better than the genuine article, complicating the effort to root out fakes on the country’s largest online shopping services.

    Global brands have long relied on China and other low-cost manufacturing bases to beef up margins. But those same factories have gotten savvier over the years and are now using the Internet -- including Alibaba’s platforms -- to sell their own products straight to consumers, Ma told the company’s investor conference on Tuesday. Still, Alibaba is the best in the world at fighting the sale of counterfeits, he added.
    “The problem is that the fake products today, they make better quality, better prices than the real products, the real names,” Ma said in Hangzhou, China. “It’s not the fake products that destroy them, it’s the new business models.”
    “The exact factories, the exact raw materials, but they do not use their names.”


    Jack Ma. Photographer: VCG via Getty Images

    Failing to clean up online bazaars like Taobao could alienate merchants and shoppers abroad, particularly at a time when Alibaba is drawing scrutiny from both investors and international brands over its reputation as a haven for knock-offs. Its membership in the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, a nonprofit global organization that fights counterfeit products and piracy, was suspended in May after questions were raised about conflicts of interest involving the coalition’s president. That’s after its inclusion in the group irked some members who said the company wasn’t going far enough to cull fakes from its marketplaces.
    Right or wrong, Ma’s comments on the caliber of counterfeits may not sit well with those trying to tackle an endemic problem that’s tarred China’s image abroad.
    “It’s inappropriate for a person of Jack Ma’s status to say something like this,” said Cao Lei, director of the China E-Commerce Research Center in Hangzhou. “For some individual cases what he’s saying might be true, but it’s wrong to generalize the phenomenon.”
    Ma wants to get more than half the company’s revenue from outside China within a decade and a cooling domestic economy makes the fight against counterfeiters more pressing.
    Alibaba pleaded its case to hundreds of members of the IACC that it has the data, technology and desire to help keep fake brands off its online marketplaces. Its collaboration with Chinese law enforcement in 2015 resulted in the arrest of 300 people, the destruction of 46 places where counterfeits are made and the confiscation of $125 million worth of products, President Michael Evans told the group in May.
    “We would love to work with the branded companies,” Ma said, adding that the company had around 2,000 staff working on the problem. “We cannot solve the problem 100 percent because it’s fighting against human instinct. But we can solve the problem better than any government, any organizations, any people in the world.”
    Alibaba handles more e-commerce than Amazon and eBay combined. It expects to reach 423 million online shoppers around the world this year, mostly through its Tmall.com and Taobao Marketplace sites. It aims to have 2 billion consumers by 2036 and double gross merchandise volume to 6 trillion yuan ($911 billion) by fiscal 2020.
    “Alibaba has a remarkable amount of big data at their disposal and I believe there are many triggers which could help them identify fakes better than they are doing at present,” said Mark Tanner, managing director of the China Skinny, a research firm in Shanghai. Those included price variances, reviews, and selling patterns, he said.
    While battling the immediate problem, Ma is also keeping an eye on the longer term. Ma said his goal of reaching 2 billion users would require more success in rural China, which he estimated had 700 million people. While there is merit in calls for expansion in Malaysia, Indonesia and India, Ma said the domestic approach would be more successful because his company understood the local market better.
    And he already has an eye to posterity, telling investors that over 90 percent of key company meetings, decisions and events have been recorded on video to be analyzed by future generations studying Alibaba.
    I dunno about that. All of the fake Chinese knock-offs I have ever received fall apart pretty quickly. I'll agree that they are cheaper.

    THREADS
    Jack Ma & Alibaba
    Chinese Counterfeits, Fakes & Knock-Offs
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  5. #20
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    Jack needs his own thread

    Most of the posts above were poached from the Jet Li's TaijiZen International Cultural Development Company thread

    China's Alibaba Pictures Launches $300M Investment Fund
    7:09 AM PDT 7/25/2016 by Patrick Brzeski


    AP Images/Invision

    Jack Ma's fledgling film studio has invested in several high-profile Hollywood projects, including 'Star Trek Beyond' and 'Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.'
    Alibaba Pictures Group has unveiled a new $300 million investment fund targeting the entertainment industry.

    Alibaba Pictures, the film studio unit of Jack Ma's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, is partnering with Wuhu Gopher Asset Management on the fund, which will be called the Hainan Alibaba Pictures Entertainment Industry Investment Fund.

    In a statement released Monday, the two partners said they would make "investments in companies along the value chain of the movie and television entertainment industry, creating synergies with Alibaba Pictures’ own capital."

    Alibaba Pictures will contribute a maximum of $75 million to the fund, with the remaining $225 million coming from Wuhu Gopher. The partners said the fund will focus on investment opportunities in high-quality film and TV companies falling under four key categories: "production development, celebrity resources, marketing and distribution and advanced technology." The partners did not specify whether the fund would exclusively target Chinese investments, or if international films and firms might be on its hit list.

    “In recent years, the Chinese entertainment industry, which has mainly been driven by movies, has undergone rapid development," said Zhang Qiang, CEO of Alibaba Pictures. "Bountiful investment opportunities and immense room for integration have emerged both upstream and downstream of the industry value chain.”

    Alibaba Pictures, which is listed on both the Singapore and Hong Kong stock exchanges, describes its core business segments as content production, Internet-based promotion and distribution, entertainment e-commerce and international operations. The studio has yet to release a film of its own, but it has three Chinese projects in varying stages of production: Ferry Man, Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossom and Ao Jiao Yu Pian Jian.

    It has also invested in high-profile Hollywood projects, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Star Trek Beyond and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Alibaba Pictures is also moving into U.S.-China co-productions with a partnership with Skydance Media to finance and co-produce the WWII film Flying Tigers, which will be scripted by Braveheart writer Randall Wallace.
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
    Star Trek Beyond
    Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
    Flying Tigers
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  6. #21
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    more theaters...

    ...who'd a thunk the the Chicoms plan for world domination was going to be through movie theaters?

    Alibaba Pictures to Build Its Own Cinemas
    Patrick Frater
    Asia Bureau Chief


    COURTESY OF ALIBABA
    AUGUST 18, 2016 | 04:45AM PT

    Alibaba Pictures Group is planning a move into the construction and operation of cinemas in China.

    The company is the movies arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and has its own share listings in Hong Kong and Singapore.

    “APG has set up a team in charge of this (cinema) business and the team is already operational,” an Alibaba Pictures spokesman told Variety by email.

    Local media reports have pointed to a construction project in the giant inland city of Chongqing as one of APG’s first sites.

    In May this year APG agreed to invest $154 million in the convertible bonds of Dadi Cinema Construction, one of China’s top three circuits. But aside from the Dadi investment, APG is currently more focused as a technology-driven film financier, distributor and marketing player.

    The downstream move into exhibition comes at a time when box office growth in China has suddenly slowed and cinemas suffered three successive months of lower sales. But this and other huge bets such as Wanda Cinema Line’s recent commitment to buy 150 additional IMAX screens, suggest that Chinese companies are confident that the theatrical business will recover its poise.

    Many more cinemas are coming on stream. At the end of 2015 China had 31,600 cinema screens in operation. By the end of this year the total is expected to be close to 40,000, putting it roughly on a par with the North American screen count – albeit with a population more than four times as large.

    At the time of the Dadi deal APG CEO Zhang Qiang said: “Cinemas will play an integral part in Alibaba Pictures’ operations, as the company aims to build an integrated entertainment platform for the film industry. It will not only serve as an important consumption context within the entertainment industry, but also become a core application of internet in the film industry.”

    Last month APG said that it was setting up a $300 million (RMB2 billion) investment fund in partnership with Gopher Asset Management. Some of the capital from the new fund could conceivably flow into APG’s cinema unit. The fund’s purposes were spelled out only vaguely: “The investment fund will invest in companies along the value chain of the movie and TV entertainment industry,” APG said in a filing.
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  7. #22
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    Spielberg & Ma

    Aliblin? Amblibaba?

    Steven Spielberg's Amblin Pacts With China's Alibaba Pictures Group
    12:02 AM PDT 10/9/2016 by Abid Rahman


    Getty Images
    Steven Spielberg (left), Jack Ma

    The legendary director joined Alibaba boss Jack Ma at a signing ceremony in Beijing that will see Alibaba Pictures take an equity stake in Amblin.
    Amblin Partners and China's Alibaba Pictures Group have entered into a strategic partnership to co-produce and finance films for global and Chinese audiences.

    At a glitzy event Sunday in Beijing, attended by Steven Spielberg and Alibaba Group chief Jack Ma, the companies said they also will collaborate on the marketing, distribution and merchandising of Amblin's films in China. Alibaba Pictures also will have the option to co-finance Amblin films worldwide.

    Under the terms of the deal, Alibaba Pictures will acquire an unspecified minority equity stake in Amblin with an Alibaba representative joining Amblin's board.

    Alibaba Pictures joins India's Reliance, Canda's eOne and Jeff Skoll's Participant Media as equity holders in Amblin Partners, which was established in December.

    Joining Ma onstage for an informal talk, Spielberg said that he hoped the partnership would "bring more of America to China, and bring more of China to America."

    Ma praised Spielberg's storytelling abilities and how his style resonated with Chinese audiences. "I don’t think there are many differences between East and West — the only difference is that the West is better at telling stories," said Ma, adding that Alibaba Pictures hoped to learn more from Spielberg and Amblin.

    Jeff Small, president and co-CEO of Amblin, also was in Beijing for the signing ceremony. Small confirmed the Alibaba deal was the Amblin's first alliance in China and that both companies had been speaking for several months.

    Alibaba Pictures president Zhang Wei said that the partnership will begin with the marketing and distribution of the Spielberg-directed The BFG, which is set for release Friday in China.

    The fledgling Chinese film studio already has invested in several high-profile Hollywood projects including Star Trek Beyond, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation and most recently Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.

    Amblin's upcoming slate of films includes comedy A Dog's Purpose, to be released Jan. 27, and sci-fi adventure film Ready Player One, based on the best-selling book by Ernest Cline and directed by Spielberg. The pic, starring Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg and Tye Sheridan, is slated to hit theaters March 30, 2018.
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  8. #23
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    B.f.d.

    B.F.D. vs. B.F.G. Clever title.

    Spielberg Goes Global: Why Amblin's Pact With China's Alibaba Is a B.F.D.
    6:15 AM PDT 10/12/2016 by Abid Rahman


    Getty Images
    Jack Ma and Steven Spielberg

    Jack Ma's Alibaba Group, which announced its minority equity stake in the director's production company at a Oct. 9 signing ceremony in Beijing, will help market 'The BFG' when it releases overseas Oct. 14.
    Steven Spielberg has found a kindred spirit in Alibaba Group founder and executive chairman Jack Ma. At the Oct. 9 signing ceremony in Beijing that saw Alibaba Pictures take a minority equity stake in Spielberg's Amblin Partners, China's second-richest man recalled how he always has loved the director's more sentimental work, especially relating to E.T., who "looked like an alien and was also kind."

    The "comprehensive strategic partnership" is Amblin's first in China, and Alibaba joins India's Reliance, Canada's eOne and Jeff Skoll's Participant Media as equity holders in the company founded in December as Spielberg's DreamWorks winds down. Amblin's bold move into the world's second-largest movie market gives it not just a way to circumvent China's foreign-movie quota with co-production and co-financing deals but also an opportunity to piggyback on Alibaba's unrivaled online and mobile ecosystem for distribution, marketing and merchandising in the Middle Kingdom. First up: the Spielberg-directed The BFG, which underwhelmed with $55.5 million at the U.S. box office.

    "It's good for Spielberg/Amblin as they gain enormous reach into the Chinese consumer market," says MKM Partners analyst Rob Sanderson. "There is potential well beyond cinema distribution and film financing," such as the ability to sell merchandise through Alibaba's marketplaces and release digitally through its social media assets.

    Alibaba Pictures has invested aggressively in Hollywood tentpoles in its two-year history, backing Paramount's Star Trek Beyond, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. But Sanderson believes this new deal is more significant because it gives the studio "exclusive distribution of high-end Hollywood content" and comes with Spielberg's "elite pedigree."

    "Alibaba management believes the Chinese consumer has been tremendously underserviced for entertainment options," he adds. "There is a lot of runway to just catch up to what other economies and cultures allocate to entertainment."
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  9. #24
    It's back - at least temporarily.

    http://www.taijizen.com/en

  10. #25
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    $14.3 billion record in 15 hours

    Jack Ma got bank.

    Alibaba smashes its own $14.3 billion record in 15 hours, making it the biggest Singles' Day sales ever


    Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson, left, and Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma, center, kicking off Singles Day.IMAGE: AP

    BY VICTORIA HO
    SINGAPORE
    13 HOURS AGO

    UPDATE: Nov. 11, 2016, 3:54 p.m. SGT Alibaba has broken last year's sales record for Singles' Day.

    China's biggest e-commerce player announced on Friday at 3:20 p.m. that it passed last year's incredible $14.3 billion sales day already.


    IMAGE: ALIBABA

    For perspective, America's Cyber Monday sales only netted $2.68 billion last year.

    Black Friday saw a further $4.45 billion spent.

    The biggest shopping bonanza in China — and in the world, really — started at midnight across Alibaba's online stores such as Taobao and Tmall.

    Alibaba threw a huge concert to kick it off, featuring Scarlett Johansson, David Beckham, Kobe Bryant and One Republic.

    Just 52 seconds in, Alibaba already cracked 1 billion yuan ($146 million) in sales.


    IMAGE: ALIBABA/SINA

    And at the 7 minute mark, it hit its next milestone of 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion). Absolutely mind-boggling.


    IMAGE: ALIBABA/SINA

    From the morning's trajectory, Alibaba looked like it was well on its way to smashing last year's sale.

    By the halfway mark on Friday, its sales had already reached 82.4 billion yuan ($12.1 billion).

    84 percent of sales were made on mobile phones.
    And if you're imagining people hunched over their computers buying frantically, that's not quite right.

    84 percent of Alibaba's sales done on Friday were made via mobile phones — unsurprising, if you take into account Alibaba's stronghold over digital payments.

    The internet giant claims to have 400 million registered users of its Alipay payment service.

    270 million of those are active each month, using the service for everything from meals at restaurants, to paying street vendors and of course, Singles' Day sales.
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  11. #26
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    Jack Ma & Alibaba

    Alibaba shells out to become top Olympics sponsor until 2028, will help IOC create e-commerce site
    BY ALEX LINDER IN NEWS ON JAN 20, 2017 12:40 PM



    Chinese online giant Alibaba continues to expand its global footprint, inking a deal yesterday to become a major sponsor for the Olympics until 2028.
    In becoming a top sponsor, Alibaba joins an elite group of 12 other international companies such as McDonalds, Panasonic, Visa and Coca-Cola. The privilege will cost them around $800 million over the 12-year span, a source familiar with the deal told Bloomberg.
    Alibaba will be tasked with creating a new global e-commerce platform for the Olympics, developing a new Olympic television channel for Chinese viewers and using its cloud platform to to operate the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) digital presence "more efficiently and securely," according to a press release.
    Timo Lumme, head of the IOC's TV and marketing division expanded more upon that first task in an interview with Yahoo Finance, stating: "A globally accessible e-commerce platform, which means that somebody in San Francisco can buy Tokyo merchandise, or somebody in Shanghai can buy Team USA merchandise. Alibaba’s going to help us reach those 700 million-plus online consumers in China who are wanting to be able to experience Olympic content on a day-in, day-out fashion.”
    The sponsorship deal -- which is the longest signed by any Chinese company -- will of course include the highly-anticipated 2022 Beijing Winter Games, not to mention the 2018 winter Olympics in nearby South Korea's Pyeongchang and the 2020 summer Olympics in Tokyo.
    Specifically, Alibaba will use its cloud platform to run the IOC’s digital presence “more efficiently and securely,” according to a press release; it will create a new global e-commerce platform for the Olympics; and it will help develop the IOC build its new Olympic television channel for a Chinese audience.
    Despite its incredible success inside China -- doing $17.8 billion in sales in one day last November -- Alibaba isn't satisfied, searching for opportunities to invest abroad and expand its services to consumers in other countries.
    Earlier this month, Alibaba founder and CEO Jack Ma met with US President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York, vowing to create 1 million new American jobs in the next 5 years.
    2020 Tokyo Olympics
    2024 Olympics
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  12. #27
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    Fake complaints on fake goods

    'Fake' is quickly becoming such an over-used term in English. That being said, I can hardly wrap my brain around this news story. Maybe it's fake news.

    In Anti-Piracy Fight, Alibaba Finds Fake Complaints Over Fakes In China
    NINA XIANG
    February 9, 2017 — 19:32 HKT


    Alibaba's fight against counterfeits just got a bit trickier

    Alibaba's anti-piracy fight just got a bit trickier as the Chinese e-commerce giant finds that companies are making false complaints for "fake products" on its online shopping platforms.

    The Hangzhou-headquartered company says that over 20% of the total complaints processed by its Intellectual Property Protection Platform in 2016 were malicious, which means they are either false allegations or they used forged documents, Alibaba said today in a statement.

    Trademark squatting, an act of registering other people's marks by squatters in other countries in order to gain benefits from the original marks' owners, is also one tactic used by Chinese companies.

    For example, one intellectual property rights agency in Shenzhen used fake documents including the registration of the trademark of Weixin, which is the Chinese name for Tencent's Wechat app, a signature of Tencent chief Pony Ma, and an authorization letter with a Tencent company chop, to file a complaint.

    The company asked for the removal of all the listings that offer products or services around Weixin, leading to the removal of hundreds of product listings from dozens of merchants until the false complaint was detected by Alibaba. Tencent reported the case to police afterwards.

    In another case, a Chinese company registered a product trademark of Nike that the U.S. company has yet to register in China. The Chinese firm subsequently submitted complaints against all the listings of backpacks with that particular logo on listings including authorized Nike distributors. More than 2,000 listings from hundreds of merchants were deleted erroneously as a result.


    (Image credit: Alibaba)

    Alibaba says 5,862 accounts on its Intellectual Property Protection Platform, a location where companies can file complaints over fake products, were involved in malicious complaints in 2016. Around 1.03 million merchants and over six million products were victims of schemes that amounted to a total loss of RMB107 million for victims including major brands such as Nike.

    In particular, Alibaba boycotted one company called Hangzhou Wangwei Technology Ltd, which was found to abuse the counterfeit notice and takedown system. Over 60% of the company's complaints were voluntarily withdrawn after counter-appeals from merchants since 2015, Alibaba said.

    In December 2016, Alibaba found itself on the 2016 Notorious Markets List put out by the United States Trade Representative. The USTR accused Alibaba's Taobao e-commerce platform as having unacceptably high levels of counterfeiting and piracy products.

    Alibaba has expanded its anti-privacy programs in recent years, and moved more than 380 million product listings in the 12 months ending August 2016, more than double that of 2015. The company has also helped detect and close around 675 counterfeit operations during that time, and put hundreds of criminal counterfeiters in jail.
    THREADS
    Jack Ma & Alibaba
    Chinese Counterfeits, Fakes & Knock-Offs
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  13. #28
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    Jack Ma lost bank.

    I keep hoping Jack Ma will invest in our magazine. It's part of his mission to promote Chinese martial arts. And we won't lose him $139 M.

    Alibaba Pictures Lost $139 Million in 2016
    Chinese entertainment giant attributed much of it to marketing and subsidies for mobile ticket business
    Matt Pressberg | March 31, 2017 @ 9:43 AM


    Getty Images
    China’s Alibaba Pictures reported a $139 million net loss for 2016, which it blamed mainly on marketing costs for its online movie ticket subsidiary in a Thursday regulatory filing.

    The company reported 1.1 billion yuan (about $160 million in marketing expenses) for 2016, largely related to its online ticketing platform Tao Piao Piao. Last month, Alibaba warned its shareholders that it would report a loss of about this size.

    Online ticketing companies have engaged in a price war in China, as operations backed by mega-conglomerates like Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu have battled it out for market share with huge subsidies and other promotions. About 8 in 10 movie tickets in the country are sold via mobile apps. However, those subsidies began to soften toward the second half of last year — as did the Chinese box office.

    Alibaba Pictures, which has an office in the Los Angeles area, took a minority stake in Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Pictures in October. Their first release together, “A Dog’s Purpose,” starring “Beauty and the Beast’s” Josh Gad, has reeled in $75.5 million in China — topping the $63.5 million the film has grossed domestically.

    Earlier this month, Alibaba Pictures signed a three-year agreement with parent Alibaba Group that gave its streaming service, Youku Tudou, priority in distributing Alibaba Pictures’ films in a deal that bound different parts of the conglomerate closer together as a slowing movie market and strict capital controls have made it more challenging for Chinese film companies to invest abroad.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  14. #29
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    星期六 晚 生活?

    I can't even wrap my head around this. Has there ever been an Asian host for SNL?

    Alibaba's Youku to Produce Chinese Version of 'Saturday Night Live'
    1:35 AM PDT 4/26/2017 by Patrick Brzeski


    Will Heath/NBC
    'Saturday Night Live'

    But don't expect the Middle Kingdom's answer to Alec Baldwin to be lampooning Chinese president Xi Jinping anytime soon.
    "Live from Beijing, it's Saturday night!"

    NBCUniversal on Wednesday unveiled a partnership with Chinese streaming video platform Youku, a unit of Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Group, which will produce a local version in China of NBC's iconic sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.

    Youku, one of China's leading streaming video services along with Tencent Video and Baidu's iQiyi service, is planning to make SNL its flagship entertainment show for the 2017 fall/winter schedule.

    Over the past few years, NBCUniversal has licensed nine other international versions of SNL, in territories ranging from France to the Middle East.

    "We're excited to partner with Youku in China, where we are confident SNL will be a big hit with audiences," said Michael Edelstein, president of NBCUniversal International Studios.

    Now in its 43rd season, Lorne Michaels' original New York version of Saturday Night Live is enjoying a banner year, with each episode attracting an average of 11 million viewers and U.S. viewership up 29 percent over last year — so far, it's been the show’s best season since 1993-1994.

    Much of the ratings comeback probably can be attributed to the presidency of Donald Trump and Alec Baldwin's lampooning of the commander-in-chief, as well as Melissa McCarthy's recurring impersonations of White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

    But given China's strong censorship system, it is unlikely that the Youku version of the show will feature a Chinese comedian taking similar shots at Chinese president Xi Jinping anytime soon. Youku and NBCUniversal say the Beijing-based remake will "showcase the best of Chinese culture and comedy."
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  15. #30
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    $15,000 for a tai chi lesson?

    At that rate, no wonder he is one of the world's richest.

    Jack Ma teaches tai chi to entrepreneurs for $15,000
    Published time: 24 May, 2017 10:21
    has launched tai chi philosophy courses for entrepreneurs, reports The Straits Times citing Chinese media.
    Alibaba founder teaches six classes over three days a year with the course reportedly costing 100,000 yuan ($14.500).

    Ma, a former English teacher has been a long-time fan of martial arts. The billionaire has reportedly been practicing tai chi quan since 1988.

    Earlier this month, Jack Ma joined the debate on a defeat of a tai chi master by a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter.

    The two styles cannot be compared as they operate by different rules, according to the billionaire. Ma stressed that most tai chi practitioners perform the art for exercise, not for real combat.

    “Tai chi was invented neither for attack nor defense, but as a movement to illustrate its philosophy. Attack and defense are part of tai chi, but definitely not all of it,” Ma wrote on his account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website.

    In 2013, Alibaba CEO in cooperation with a Chinese actor Jet Li launched Taiji Zen Online Academy to promote the martial art and associated meditation techniques.

    Jack Ma says that tai chi and tai chi quan are different, as the former represents a philosophy and the latter is the martial art itself.

    “Tai chi is about how you balance and how you work,” he previously said in an interview with Bloomberg.

    “Tai chi is like 'you fight there and I'll go over here. You're at the top, and I'll go down'. It's a balance. You are heavy and I'm small. When I'm small, I can jump. You're heavy. You cannot jump. Tai chi is about a philosophy. I use tai chi philosophy in the business. Calm down. There's always a way out and keep yourself balanced,” Ma said.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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