China Internet Watch

How Tencent’s investment strategy made it US$120 billion in 2020

CIW Team — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 11:52:57 +0000

Tencent made a total of about US$120 billion in 2020 through its minority stakes in about 100 listed companies. Such achievements are enough to make any venture capital company in Silicon Valley envious.

Tencent is one of the largest and smartest technology investors in the world, holding shares in a range of companies, including Snap and Meituan. It even had a 5% stake in Tesla.

According to Sina News, Tencent gained about US$120 billion in total in 2020 through its minority stake in about 100 listed companies, which is about six times its expected profit in 2020.

The increase highlighted Tencent's activity as a stock investor, far more than Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Facebook, which have abundant cash reserves. Most of these companies invest their cash conservatively in bonds and government securities.

Tencent, by contrast, invests part of the cash it generates in a wide range of equity investments.

As of the end of 2020, Tencent's shares of listed companies (excl...

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Alipay integrates 6 bike-sharing apps, offering install-free experience

CIW Team — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 08:00:08 +0000

Starting on 29 April 2017, users can easily rent a bicycle from one of the six leading bike-sharing companies in China via Alipay without installing additional mobile apps.

Alipay’s “Scan & Ride” function connects six bike sharing brands including Ofo, Youonbike, Bluegogo, Hellobike, Funbike, and Ubike, offering a total number of over six million shared bicycles across 50 cities in China.

Currently, shared bikes on the streets require the download, installation, and registration of mobile apps; some may ask for cash deposits. Skipping all these delivers better user experience and convenience. These bike-sharing apps sitting on top of Alipay app achieves that; and, the idea is very similar to WeChat launched Mini-Program.

All the six bike-sharing companies but Hellobike also joined Alipay’s riding protection program, which offers insurance to bike riders.

China bike-sharing market is estimated to reach US$1.5 billion (+735.8%) and 209 million users in 2017. Read China bike-sharing market insights in Q1 2017 →

Update (30 April 2017): Mobike reported an addition of 24 million newly registered users on 28 April 2017 after being integrated with WeChat since 29 March 2017, an increase of over 200%.

Check out the UN report: The growth of digital payment ecosystems in China: what it means for other countries

China bike sharing market insights

CIW Team — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 08:00:28 +0000

China bike sharing market is estimated to reach US$1.5 billion (+735.8%) and 209 million users in 2017. Ofo, Mobike, and Ubike are the top brands in the market with the highest brand awareness while Baicyle is also in the top 3 by user satisfation after Ofo and Mobike.

China bike sharing market reached 1.23 billion yuan (US$180 million) in 2016 with 28 million users. It’s estimated to grow exponentially to 10.28 billion yuan (US$1.49 bn; +735.8%) with 209 million users in 2017.

China Bike Sharing Market Brand Penetrations in Chinese Cities

Ofo bike sharing has penetrated the most number of Chinese cities (43), excluding 3 overseas cities as of 31 March 2017. Mobike is also available in over 30 cities.

Ofo – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Kunming, Chengdu, etc.
Mobike – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Ningbo, Xiamen,etc.
Hellobike – Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Xiamen, Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Wuhan,etc.
Xiaoming – Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuzhen, Shantou, Jieyang
Bluegogo –Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Beijing, Nanjing, Foshan
Ubike – Shanghai, Zhuhai, Shantou, Changsha, Foshan
Youonbike – Kunming, Changsha, Chengdu, Beijing
Qibei – Hangzhou, Shenyang
Yibu Bike – Chengdu

Brand Awareness in Q1 2017

The top brands by brand awarness in China are Mobike, ofo, Ubike, Xiaoming, Bluegogo, and Qibei. However, ofo beat Mobike in terms of brand preference. Ofo also tops the ranking by user stickiness and user satisfactions.

The top problems users are facing include the number of available bikes and the locations, high deposit, inaccurate bike positioning, poor riding experience, customer service, inconvenient registration, etc.

Over one-third of respondents (35.3%) expressed the inconvenience caused by sabotaged bicycles. Users prefer to provide shared bike usage feedback by WeChat Official Accounts (50.4%), WeChat/QQ Groups (39.7%), App (38%), official Weibo (26.5%), etc.

Also read: Privacy and security are top concerns in China’s sharing economy