Yifeng Mao, CFA
Head of Research
Adnan Gilani
Head of Macro
SINA Corporation (NASDAQ:SINA) —- Weibo Paying User Surging, Monetization Accelerating (Summary)
With Goldpebble Weibo Activity Monitoring System (GPWAMS), we see Weibo user activities have been growing over the past months. Weibo paying user/enterprise users has surged while daily/monthly blogging users growth has decelerated.
MORE>Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM.NYSE) – Long Term Concerns and Recent Deterioration.
December 31, 2012 丨 Singapore
It is our view that YUM China division’s SSSG has gotten worse from September to November of 2012. The secular growth of online shopping, the discretionary nature of KFC food in China, and the downturn of the economy all hurt KFC in a big way in the long run. In the short-term, the colder weather this past November and exploding food safety issues have worsened KFC’s problems.
MORE>Ctrip.com International Ltd. (NASDAQ:CTRP), A study on Ctrip hotel booking pricing v.s. Elong (NASDAQ:LONG)
December 5, 2012 丨 Singapore
Elong started its coupon promotion of hotel booking business since summer 2010. Customers get cash rebate coupons for most of the hotels listed on Elong. The room nights volume booked by Elong increased by 65% for Q2 2012 and 42% for Q1 2012. Ctrip started to follow the whole pricing strategy with some modification since Q2 2012 . This study shows Ctrip basically are executing a matching pricing strategy against Elong in hotel booking business. The price difference between Ctrip and Elong on hotel booking is not significant at this moment.
MORE>Sina Corporation (NASDAQ:SINA), Weibo October 2012 Activities
December 1, 2012 丨 Singapore
Goldpebble randomly selected 872,945* Sina Weibo users during the month of October 2012 and estimate that there were 339mn* registered users in October.
MORE>New Oriental Education and Technology Group (NYSE:EDU), A Pebble Underappreciated
September 13, 2012 丨 Singapore
New Oriental shares have come under immense pressure (down 73%) recently amid market worries over the scale of its franchise, potential fraud in financial reporting, doubts over its high margins and the legal structure of its controlling ownership, among other things..
MORE>