by Tony Sagami on May 17, 2012
Very interesting article from Forbes about Apple, Google, and Facebook.
It is not an exaggeration to say that all roads of growth lead to or through China. The obvious question for some of today’s most popular growth stocks is, “Out of Apple Google,, and Facebook, which company will do better in China?”
The bread and butter of Google and Facebook are selling advertising. Apple on the other hand makes money by selling devices.
Chinese mentality regarding digital marketing is also not well understood by western analysts. A typical American or European company is either spending 8% to 10% of its advertising budget on digital marketing or is heading in that direction.
In contrast, a typical large Chinese company spends only 2% to 3% of its advertising budget on digital marketing.
The point is that even if Facebook and Google could expand in China there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in China.
On this count Apple gets the pot of gold.
by Tony Sagami on May 17, 2012
A Nielsen survey of Chinese consumers found that are cooling towards discretionary spending, preferring to salt money into savings or education for their children.
Savings and education were the only areas in which survey respondents were more willing to allocate additional cash.
by Tony Sagami on May 17, 2012
China demand for gold hit an all-time high in the first quarter.
China remained the world’s top gold consumer for the second quarter in a row, with its gold consumer demand up 10 percent to 255.2 tonnes, beating India’s 207.6 tonnes.
by Sean Brodrick on May 16, 2012
by Tony Sagami on May 16, 2012
General Motors has decided to stop advertising on Facebook. Why? According to GM, Facebook advertising “just doesn’t work.”
General Motors, the third-largest advertiser in the United States, decided toer discontinue its Facebook advertising, worth about $10 million annually.
That is pretty damning news but to put some perspective on it, Facebook had $3.7 billion worth of revenues in 2011 so this $10 million isn’t a big loss. If other advertisers follow suit, Facebook is going to get killed.
by Tony Sagami on May 16, 2012
The operator of the world’s largest container ship fleet reported net profits up 1 per cent at $1.18bn on revenue down 1 per cent to $14.3bn compared with the same quarter of 2011. But the profits were entirely the result of a $900m exceptional gain following settlement of a tax dispute in Algeria and $324m in investment gains in the quarter.
Those results were actually worse than they look though. If not for the very profitable oil division, Maersk would have lost its shorts. The shipping division lost $600 million in Q1.
by Tony Sagami on May 14, 2012
This is a very interesting look at where the world’s largest economies are headed. This CNN page shows how the 10 largest economies have performed since 2000 and what they are expected to do each year up to 2017.
Take a look. It will help you decide whether to include Asia or not in your portfolio.
by Tony Sagami on May 10, 2012
Hey, maybe I should step up my criticisms of the Obama administration to get a free vacation at a luxury resort. It worked in China.
China has moved a prominent ethnic Mongolian rights activist to a “luxury resort.”
Hada, who like many ethnic Mongolians in China uses a single name, was tried in China’s vast northern Inner Mongolia region in 1996 and jailed for 15 years for separatism, spying and supporting the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance, which seeks greater rights for ethnic Mongolians.
He was released in December 2010 and then had to serve a separate sentence, “four years of deprivation of political rights”, Tao Jian, the deputy Communist Party boss of Inner Mongolia’s law and order committee, said in March.
Hada has since been transferred to the resort in the Chifeng municipality of Inner Mongolia, the New York-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre (SMHRIC) said in an emailed statement, citing Hada’s uncle, Haschuluu.
by Tony Sagami on May 10, 2012
This factoid about China’s trade numbers worries the heck out of me. This is one of the first data points that I’ve seen about the economies of China’s neighbors slowing down.
Shipments to emerging economies experienced a drop alongside well-flagged European weakness.
by Tony Sagami on May 10, 2012
Exports grew by 4.9% but imports only increased by 0.3%. That puts a big question mark on how strong China’s domestic economy/domestic consumption really is.
China’s exports and imports both grew considerably more slowly than expected last month, the Chinese government announced on Thursday, in one of the clearest signals yet of lingering and possibly worsening weakness in the world’s second biggest economy.
