Update #1: Secondary Listings, Queen Viya, and Reliance Jio
Welcome to the very first edition of East West Hurricane! We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.
It’s Increasingly ‘The Move’ for public Chinese Companies to List in Hong Kong
Given the tensions between the US and China and the threat of delisting from US Stock Exchanges, many large public Chinese companies are choosing to do secondary listings in Hong Kong over the coming months. One major example—the second biggest Chinese E-Commerce company and Alibaba’s primary rival, JD.com
JD.com is currently listed on the NASDAQ but plans to raise $4 Billion in a Hong Kong listing later this month.
Remember the Name ‘Viya,’ The Queen of Chinese Livestreraming
Viya is the professional name of Huang Wei, one of China’s most popular e-commerce livestreamers. Some of her livestream accomplishments include selling a rocket for $5.6 million, having an audience of 37 million in one day, and driving $50 million of sales in a single day.
This Bloomberg article is one of the best in-depth breakdowns of Viya, the business lessons from her operation, and insights into the future of commerce. Livestreaming has been huge in China for years, and is only starting to pick up now in the West. You can see this newfound interest reflected in investments made by companies like Instagram, who are creating new products focused on live shopping.
Reliance Jio becomes the world’s hottest investment of the last two months
Jio is the telecommunications subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, the most valuable company in India headed up by the richest man in India, Mukesh Ambani. With 388 million subscribers, Reliance Jio is now worth $65 billion.
Over the last seven weeks, Reliance has announced new investments from seven different entities — Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, KKR, General Atlantic, Mubadala, and now the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). These investments add up to about $13 billion.
In the middle of a global pandemic, this 13-year-old ‘startup’ telco has suddenly become one of the world’s biggest investments.
