Update #4 - Dada Nexus, Chinese Basketball, and Tencent's Anime
Welcome to 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.
Follow us on Twitter!
Online Delivery Company Dada Nexus Raises $320 Million in Nasdaq IPO
Dada Nexus is a Chinese grocery delivery company that went public on the Nasdaq last week. This comes at a time when many Chinese companies are choosing to list in Hong Kong based on pressure from US regulators. Major investors in Dada Nexus include Walmart and JD.com.
Dada Nexus saw a 109% year-over-year increase in revenue between January to March 2020. Online food and grocery delivery companies in the West have benefitted from the Coronavirus, and the same holds for their Chinese counterparts.
Chinese Basketball Plans To Restart The Season
The Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) has announced a specific plan to officially restart their season on June 20. Many other leagues such as the Chinese Super League of football have yet to specify their plans.
Sports leagues all around the world and their ancillary industries are struggling to cope with the effects of the coronavirus. In contrast to the CBA, the NBA is planning to restart their season a month later on July 31.
The President of the CBA is Yao Ming, the former NBA All-Star and Hall Of Famer for the Houston Rockets. He is likely the world’s most famous Chinese Basketball Player and since retiring from the NBA in 2011, Yao has been pretty much in charge of growing the sport of basketball in China.
Tencent Spend on Japanese Anime Studios to Become the Next Marvel
Tencent has recently acquired stakes in two major Japanese studios—Marvelous Entertainment and Platinum Games—and is also actively involved in acquisition talks with several more animation and gaming studios.
In China, the sub-culture known as A.C.G. (Anime, Comics, Gaming) is one of the biggest consumer groups and the most successful A.C.G. franchises originate from Japan.
Why acquire more direct stakes in Japanese ACG intellectual property? One benefit for Tencent is to utilise that IP to create something like a Marvel franchise — a complete suite of products based around the IP that include films, video games, toys, merchandise, and more. Don’t forget—Tencent is already the biggest gaming company in the world.
