Update #5 - American Express, Warner Music, and Didi
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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.
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American Express Wins Clearing License for China 🏦
American Express has become the first foreign financial services company to be allowed to process local RMB currency transactions in Mainland China, a $27 Trillion market. American Express has been trying to enter China for a decade and recently formed a joint venture, Express (Hangzhou) Technology Services, with local Chinese fintech LianLian Digitech, Co in order to accomplish this.
This move could be interpreted as part of a broader trend by the Chinese government to start opening up their financial markets. In October 2019, the Chinese government approved Paypal’s acquisition of local payments company GoPay. Looking at the Paypal + American Express decisions together, maybe this is a step in the positive direction for US-China relations?
Warner Music = Tencent’s Latest Stake in Global Entertainment 🎵
Last week, Tencent purchased a $200 Million stake in Warner Music Group, one of the big three global record labels—the other two being Sony and Universal. This stake equates to 10% of Class A Shares and nearly 2% of the entire Warner Music Group. Previously, Warner Music was a public company between 2005 to 2011, then went private then recently went public again on June 3, 2020 at a valuation of roughly $15 Billion.
Warner Music is home to labels like Atlantic, Elektra, and Warner Records, and artists like Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, and Dua Lipa.
Tencent also owns 10% of Universal Music Group and 9% of Spotify, and that’s just their major music holdings! If you take into consideration their investments in other entertainment categories like gaming, anime, and film, Tencent is literally one of the most influential entertainment holding companies in the world. And they own Wechat. And there’s MUCH more to Tencent.
Didi Plans to Launch On-Demand Trucking and Cargo Shipping 🚚
Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing company, has announced plans to begin offering on-demand cargo shipping. Within the Didi app, a new channel Huoyun (“cargo shipping”) has been added and the company plans to hire nearly 600 van/truck drivers as it starts offering discount coupons in several cities to support the launch of the service.
You could think of Didi as the Uber of China. In fact, in 2015 Uber China was competing directly against Didi until Didi actually acquired Uber China in 2016 for $35 Billion.
Didi is not the only company exploring trucking in China. Competitors include Lalamove, Kuaigou Dache, and Hello Chuxing. Each of these companies offer medium to long range delivery of goods ranging from small to large sizes.
