CCTV Seeks to Address Adverting Conundrum
As an important government mouthpiece, China Central Television (CCTV) has long been wavering between its public and commercial attributes, affecting its employment, content production and advertising systems. And the finance channel CCTV-2 is a typical exemplification of the dual attributes. A series of corruption scandals exposed in 2014 made the system’s problems known to the public and led to a shakeup of its advertising system, separating adverting operations from the journalistic and editorial process. The employment system also underwent a major reform.
According to the new institutional reform plan released in March, CCTV will be incorporated into China National Radio and China Radio International to form a new media brand—”Voice of China”. Under the new organization, the television station must reposition itself and look for a solution for the conflict of dual attributes.
Gionee Struggles to Survive the Debt Crisis
At the end of 2017, Shenzhen-based smartphone maker Gionee was found to be tangled in an unexpected huge funding black hole, owing 4 billion yuan to suppliers and 8 billion yuan to banks. As the No.7 phone seller in China in 2017, Gionee’s debt crisis didn’t happen overnight. It invested a vast amount of money in non-core businesses like finance and real estate and overestimated collection efficiency of its core business, leading to the capital chain rupture.
Even if Gionee breaks through the financing bottleneck, it still faces challenges of reestablishment of supply chain and goodwill, and a severer environment of competition, in which the turf of second-tier mobile brands will be further encroached on by oligopolies. It will be a tough year for Gionee anyway.
Digital Currency Exchange: On the Eve of Revolution
In the world of digital currencies, exchanges are the biggest hub of activity. And the top exchanges, having massive users and huge traffic, attract more new users. The centralization of exchanges runs counter to the decentralization of blockchain technology. Meanwhile, doubts and allegations around the exchanges about fake traffic, trading by bots, price manipulation, and providing convenience for external capital in speculation have always been there. The hacking threat is also a big concern.
More people found or invest in decentralized exchanges, attempting to break the monopoly of and replace several top centralized exchanges. How to regulate and decentralize the power of exchanges will be the theme of competition among digital currency exchanges for the next phrase.
Capital Vies For A Ten-billion-worth Trust License
Jilin Fanya Trust & Investment Corp. was asked by the authorities to suspend business for rectification in 2006 and entered bankruptcy proceedings in 2010. As it held a trust license, one of 71 such licenses in China and estimated to be worth ten-billion yuan, many players joined the restructuring competition in the past eight years.
However, the restructuring came to a deadlock again on March 30 when the plan dominated by Elion Resources Group failed to enter the voting procedure as shareholders, creditors and restructuring players didn’t reach consensus. A potential risk is the liquidation proceedings may start if the plan cannot be passed anyway, which means the trust license will be taken back by the authorities and efforts by various parties will be wasted.
Chinese Regulators Woo Tech Giants Home
China released in March draft rules for innovative enterprises to issue shares or CDRs, similar instruments to ADRs, which are certificates that allow investors to hold shares listed across borders, a measure taken by the regulators to woo overseas listed Chinese firms, especially major tech companies, back to the domestic A-share market as capital markets in the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore are also going after these unicorns.
The boon has boosted the estimated value of many unicorns. Experts warn that overheating and speculation should be cautioned, especially in China’s retail investor-dominated capital market. If the system is designed improperly and supervision is inadequate, it will give issuers more space for premium issue and damage interests of investors.
