Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1714
Ali Changes CEO
We said more than a month ago that Ali’s major adjustment heralded the end of Zhang Yong’s era. This moment came today, Zhang Yong announced that he would step down as chairman of the board of directors and CEO of the group on September 10.
At the end of his farewell letter, Zhang Yong used an expression similar to Ma Yun’s 2019 farewell letter-“The green mountains will not change, and the green water will flow forever.” The difference is that Ma Yun said in the past that he “hoped to change the arena”, and Zhang Yong said this time that he “created a new arena”. Next, he will go all out to promote the complete splitting of Alibaba Cloud from the Alibaba Group and listing in places with stricter supervision.
The burden he unloaded was taken over by Cai Chongxin, the current vice chairman of the board of directors of the group, and Wu Yongming, chairman of Taotian Group. They are not only the most experienced Ali people, but also one of Ma Yun’s most trusted people. Cai Chongxin is even more appreciated by overseas investors. An investment banker said that foreign investors believe that Cai Chongxin’s qualifications are worthy of living in the market, and he is very good at telling Chinese stories to the outside world.
Wu Yongming is considered the most suitable successor within Ali. He understands technology, operations, and products. He has been the technical director of Taobao and Alipay. After fading out of the front line of Ali in 2014, Wu Yongming founded Yuanjing Capital and invested in projects such as Ideal Auto and Tuya Smart. Of course, “deeply trusted by Jack Ma” is the unanimous evaluation of him by high-level internal people.
Compared with when he left the front line, Wu Yongming is facing several levels of external pressure now. Macroscopically, China’s GDP growth rate fell in the 5% range, consumer confidence declined, and the recovery of the entire consumer market was slower than expected. On the micro level, Pinduoduo and Douyin have divided the Ali market under this trend. Their total GMV has exceeded half of Ali, and there is no sign of slowing down.
As far as we know, in terms of external tasks, Wu Yongming will need to coordinate resources with Cai Chongxin to ensure that the rights and interests of the Ali Group are also protected-this is currently the most worrying thing for investors.
“Alibaba Group is about to become a holding company. Globally, the valuation of holding companies is more or less discounted, depending on the investment in shareholder returns and the strength of the core business.” Said, “If Ali’s core business does not see obvious business transitions and results in the face of competition from strong enemies, the market’s interest in holding Ali’s parent company may be suppressed for a long time.”
Internally, Wu Yongming also faces great challenges, including how to keep the six subsidiaries and Company N growing, and to incubate and explore new models and products within the Ali Group. He is now the director of Ali’s local life, international business, and chairman of Taotian Group, and will add the title of group CEO later.
But if that works, Ma won’t have to make frequent public appearances. Perhaps broader changes are already in the pipeline. (Gong Fangyi)
Several large language models in China have been put on record through algorithms
On June 20, the State Cyberspace Administration of China issued an announcement stating that in accordance with the “Regulations on the Administration of Deep Synthesis of Internet Information Services”, the filing information of domestic deep synthesis service algorithms will be publicly released.
According to the “Domestic In-depth Synthesis Service Algorithm Filing List” published by Netcom Office, as of June 2023, 40 algorithms from Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Meituan, Kuaishou and other companies have passed the filing, including image synthesis, speech synthesis (smart customer service) scene) and algorithms such as text generation.
There are also multiple large-scale language models in the filing list, including Zhipu Huazhang’s Zhipu ChatGLM generation algorithm, Baidu PLATO large-scale model algorithm (not Wenxin Yiyan), Bodhidharma’s open-domain natural dialogue synthesis algorithm (not Tongyi Qianwen) , Xunfei Xinghuo Cognitive Large Model Algorithm, etc., there are speculations on the market that large model-driven generative artificial intelligence products are about to land.
In November 2022, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the “Regulations on the Administration of Deep Synthesis of Internet Information Services”, requiring deep synthesis service providers with public opinion attributes or social mobilization capabilities to perform filing, modification, and cancellation filing procedures . According to regulations, deep synthesis refers to the technology of generating and synthesizing algorithms represented by deep learning and virtual reality to produce information such as text, images, audio, video, and virtual scenes. June 20 was the first time that the Cyberspace Administration of China announced the filing list in accordance with this regulation.
According to Hong Yanqing, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Institute of Technology quoted by Sina Securities, “algorithm filing is a routine regulatory action, which does not mean that generative artificial intelligence products (supported by large language models) have been approved for implementation.”
His basis is the “Generative Artificial Intelligence Service Management Measures (Draft for Comment)” issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China in April this year, which stipulates that before enterprises use generative artificial intelligence products to provide services to the public, in addition to filing, they must also follow the ” Provisions on the Security Assessment of Internet Information Services with Public Opinion Attributes or Social Mobilization Capabilities” Apply for security assessment to the national network information department.
At present, the “Generative Artificial Intelligence Service Management Measures” has not been officially released and implemented. (He Qianming)
The central bank lowered the benchmark lending rate, and the Hang Seng Property Index fell 1.68%
On the 20th, the People’s Bank of China lowered the quoted loan market interest rate (LPR) for June, by 10 basis points to 3.55% and 4.2% for the 1-year and 5-year terms respectively, which was the first reduction since the third quarter of last year.
The rate cut was in line with market expectations. The previously released financial data and economic data in May all point to insufficient financing demand and an overall recovery that is less than expected. The central bank has successively lowered policy interest rates and MLF interest rates last week. The market expects that LPR will follow suit. The purpose is to reduce entity financing costs, Stimulate the recovery of financing demand.
Weaker than expected may be the rate cut of the 5-year LPR – after this rate cut, the accumulative interest on a 30-year mortgage of RMB 1 million decreased by RMB 21,000 to RMB 760,000. An earlier survey showed that half of respondents thought the drop would be more than 10 basis points due to weakness in the housing market.
On the 20th, the five major stock indexes of the Shanghai Composite Index all fell, among which the real estate stock index fell by 1.67%, the largest drop. In terms of Hong Kong stocks, the Hang Seng Property Index fell 1.68%, of which Country Garden fell 6.8%, Longfor Properties fell 5%, KWG fell 11.1%, and Times China fell 8.2%. (Lin Guangying and Qiu Hao)
The enthusiasm for traveling during the Dragon Boat Festival continues, and the prices of air tickets and hotels have dropped compared with “May Day”
This year’s Dragon Boat Festival travel orders are still high, but due to the length of the holiday, peripheral tours and short-distance tours are mostly, and the air tickets and hotel prices of some popular destinations during the “May 1st” long holiday have dropped.
Data from Fliggy shows that the peak booking period for mid- to long-term travel during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday was nearly 10 days earlier than last year, and the number of air ticket bookings on the Qunar platform 3 days in advance exceeded that of the same period in 2019. According to the forecast of China Railway Shanghai Bureau Group Co., Ltd., during the Dragon Boat Festival this year, the Yangtze River Delta Railway will send a total of 15 million passengers, more than 20% more than the same period in 2019.
However, due to the majority of surrounding and short-distance tours during the Dragon Boat Festival, the average price of air tickets and hotels has dropped compared with the “May 1st” holiday.
On the platforms of Qunar and Fliggy, the average price paid for air tickets during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday is about 20% and 10% lower than that during the “May Day” period. According to the data of Hanglv Zongheng, the average payment price (excluding tax) of domestic air tickets for the Dragon Boat Festival is about 985 yuan, which is about 20% lower than that of “May Day”; May 1” fell by about 8%.
The average price of hotels in most popular destinations is significantly lower than that of “May Day”. According to data from Ctrip, among the top ten domestic popular destinations during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, the average hotel room night price in Xi’an was 29% lower than that of May Day, Nanjing was down 22%, and Guangzhou was down 19%. Only Chengdu and Qingdao rose slightly.
In terms of outbound travel, destinations with a flight time of less than 3 hours are more popular with domestic tourists. According to the same journey travel data, 65% of outbound tourists during the Dragon Boat Festival chose Southeast Asia as their destination. However, limited by passports, visas and international flight capacity, the number of inbound and outbound passengers at Shanghai’s two airports during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday is expected to be 177,000, which is only half of that of the same period in 2019. (Qiu Hao)
Nearly a quarter of “618” sales come from live broadcast e-commerce, making traditional e-commerce even more difficult
According to the “618” data monitored by Xingtu data, from 20:00 on May 31 to June 18, the total sales of the entire network was 798.7 billion yuan, an increase of 13.5% over last year’s “618” period.
Among them, comprehensive e-commerce sales increased by 5.4% year-on-year to 614.3 billion yuan, accounting for 76.9%. Tmall, JD.com, and Pinduoduo are still among the top three.
Live broadcast e-commerce grew the fastest, with sales increasing by 27.6% year-on-year to 184.4 billion yuan, and its share of the e-commerce market rose from 19.9% last year to 23.1%. Douyin and Diantao rank in the top two, while Kuaishou fell from second to third last year. According to Douyin data, the overall sales of Douyin e-commerce “618” increased by two-thirds year-on-year.
In terms of categories, sales of beauty and skin care products fell 2.3% year-on-year to 30 billion yuan; fragrance and makeup increased 3% year-on-year to 10.6 billion yuan, but still about 20% lower than 2021. In terms of rigid demand, washing and cleaning, and grain and oil seasoning continued to grow, with a year-on-year increase of 5.9% and 4%, respectively.
New retail and community group buying are not included in the “618” network sales, and the two are less driven by e-commerce festival marketing. Among them, new retail sales amounted to 24.3 billion yuan, Meituan’s flash shopping surpassed JD Daojia to rank first, and Ele.me replaced Taoxianda to rank third. The sales volume of community group buying was 16.7 billion yuan, and the top three were still Duoduomai, Meituan Best, and Xingsheng Best. (Lin Guangying)
OTHER NEWS
The State Council hopes to basically build a charging infrastructure system by 2030.
The General Office of the State Council issued guidelines, hoping to basically build a charging infrastructure system by 2030 to support the development of the new energy vehicle industry. It is proposed in the guidance that in large and medium-sized cities, the proportion of rechargeable parking spaces in the total parking spaces in commercial parking lots should strive to exceed the proportion of urban registered electric vehicles in the total number of vehicles. network. The construction of the charging network in rural areas places more emphasis on effective coverage in areas suitable for the use of electric vehicles. In addition, the latest policies to promote the development of the new energy vehicle industry are expected to be announced at the regular policy briefing of the State Council on the 21st.
The average daily number of flights between China and the United States has recovered to about one-third of the same period in 2019.
According to the data of Fei Changzhun, on June 19, there were 61 passenger flights between China and the United States, compared with 181 flights in the same period in 2019. We have introduced before that flights to and from Europe and the United States are affected by traffic rights, time slots, airport support capabilities, etc., and the recovery progress is relatively lagging behind. On June 18, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang held talks with US Secretary of State Blinken in Beijing. The two sides agreed to encourage the expansion of cultural and educational exchanges between the two countries and actively discuss the increase of passenger flights between China and the United States.
German Chancellor Scholz opposes complete regulation of exports to China.
On June 19 local time, German Chancellor Scholz said at an event held by the Federation of German Industries that the German government should not put all exports to China under supervision. Scholz believes that the series of regulations currently enacted are sufficient to ensure the safety of its own economy; what Germany needs to do is to de-risk China, not to decouple.
Orders from large Chinese shipyards are scheduled for three to five years later.
According to a report by the Financial Associated Press, the new decarbonization indicators have taken effect and the aging of ships has caused a shortage of production capacity in many large domestic shipyards, and orders are basically scheduled for three to five years later. Orders for new ships, including container ships, gas ships, and ro-ro ships, are continuing to grow, and the shortage of docks has also led to higher ship prices.
Market rumors caused the share prices of SMIC and Hua Hong to plummet.
Today, SMIC’s A-shares and Hong Kong stocks, the leading fab in mainland China, suddenly fell sharply in the afternoon. As of the close, SMIC’s A-shares fell 5.07%, Hong Kong stocks fell 5.79%, and Hua Hong Semiconductor, another mainland fab, closed down 4.02%. %. There are market rumors that TSMC will open up the foundry to mainland companies.
Litchi prices fell to their lowest in five years as production increased.
According to CCTV Finance, local fruit distributors in Guangdong said that the wholesale price of lychees in production areas this year has dropped to the lowest in five years. Among them, the wholesale price of Concubine Xiao litchi has dropped to more than three yuan per catty, the price of Guiwei litchi has dropped from seventeen or eight yuan to four or five yuan, and the price of Nuomici litchi has dropped from more than thirty yuan to more than ten yuan. The main reason for the price drop of lychees is that the orchards have generally increased their production, and there is more rain in Hainan and other places.
Fast Retailing’s aggressive revenue target has been questioned because the market believes that young Chinese are not so keen on Uniqlo.
Fast Retailing Group, the parent company of Uniqlo, aims to more than triple its sales to 10 trillion yen (about 70.6 billion U.S. dollars) within 10 years. But analysts are concerned about the Chinese business affecting targets. From December last year to February this year, Fast Retailing’s average sales per store in China fell by 12% compared with before the epidemic. Analysts believe that the epidemic is not the only reason. Compared with middle-aged and elderly consumers, Chinese young people are not so keen on overseas brands. , they may be more inclined to local brands that are constantly improving in quality and design.
LVMH’s luxury brands Celine and Dior may raise prices again.
According to fashion network, Celine, a luxury brand owned by LVMH, may raise prices globally starting June 23, with an increase of up to 20%. Dior, which also belongs to the world’s largest luxury goods group, may also raise prices by 10% to 15% in July. Celine has raised prices once this year, and Dior also raised prices in July last year. The higher the price of luxury goods, the easier it is to sell. LVMH’s sales in the first quarter of this year increased by 17% year-on-year, becoming the first company in Europe with a market value of more than 500 billion euros.
Indian stocks hit new highs.
According to FactSet data, as of last Friday, the Indian stock market has a total market value of 3.4 trillion US dollars, rising to the fourth place in the world, surpassing the United Kingdom and France, and second only to the United States, China and Japan. Comments suggest that India has more potential for investment when the GDP growth pressure of the world’s major economies is increasing. Since the end of March, the market value of Indian stocks has risen by 13%.
In anticipation of more people traveling by plane, Indian airlines have successively purchased large aircraft orders.
On the first day of the Paris Air Show, Indian airline IndiGo announced the purchase of 500 narrow-body aircraft from Airbus, setting a record for the largest civil aircraft order in history. The previous record was in February this year when Air India purchased 470 planes from Boeing and Airbus. IndiGo is a low-cost airline, and it has more than 60% of its share in less than 20 years since its establishment. The CEO of Airbus called it “the first choice for Indians to fly for the first time.” At present, IndiGo has nearly 1,000 aircraft to be delivered.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi once said that India will become the world’s third largest aviation market and will need more than 2,000 aircraft in the next 15 years. As of June this year, IndiGo had 315 aircraft, while Air India had 119, the data showed. For comparison, China Southern Airlines, China’s largest airline, currently operates nearly 900 aircraft.
Apple Inc. applies for all trademark copyrights related to apples (fruits).
According to “Wired” magazine, Switzerland’s oldest (111 years) and largest fruit grower organization “Swiss Fruit Federation” said that they may have to change the LOGO because Apple is trying to obtain all intellectual property rights about apples. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, Apple has made similar requests to dozens of intellectual property agencies around the world, and has received tacit approval from relevant departments in Japan, Turkey and Israel.
The logo of the Swiss Fruit Federation.
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