UBM to launch Ecobuild India in 2013

News this week: UBM plc announced the launch of Ecobuild India in 2013. The event will be held at the Bombay Exhibition Centre (BEC) in Mumbai from 16^th to 18^th April 2013.

Ecobuild India 2013 will be organised by UBM’s two subsidiaries, UBM Build Environment and UBM India. UBM Build Environment is a specialist media division of UBM for the construction, property, architecture and interiors markets.

UBM currently has Ecobuild events in U.K. and China. The U.K. event claims to be the world’s largest exhibition dedicated to the future of sustainable building design, construction and the built environment. The China event is held concurrent with another build event, Expo Build China.

Sanjeev Khaira, managing director of UBM India, was quoted, “Sustainably developing an infrastructure to support this vast, youthful and vibrant population is high on the agenda in India right now. We see this as the ideal time to work with our UK colleagues to launch an Indian edition of the world’s largest exhibition dedicated to the future of sustainable building design, construction and the built environment. We already organise India’s largest event on sustainability, Renewable Energy India, along with some highly successful events in the built environment, which have synergies that will count towards making this launch a success.”

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HC International records jump in profits

News this week: Hong Kong-listed HC International has released its results for the year ended 31^st December 2011. Revenues were US$69 million, an increase of 38% compared with results in 2010. Net income for the year was US$6.5 million – a jump of five times over 2010’s US$1.3 million.

The Beijing-based company’s online services, its largest business segment, generated US$46 million or 59% of total revenues, which is a 76% year-on-year increase. The second largest business segment, trade catalogues and yellow page directories business generated revenues 17% of the total revenues or US$13 million. That figure dropped 19% compared to 2010. Revenues generated by seminars and other services were US$11 million or 13% of total revenues, a 28% increase over the previous year.

This post is excerpted from BSG's weekly e-newsletter which is part of our subscription research service, BSG Tracker. Visit our website to find out more about this service. You can also follow us on Twitter for all the latest updates.

Alipay ventures into logistics, PayPal looks to China

News this week: Alibaba Group’s e-payment subsidiary, Alipay, announced plans to invest US$79 million to diversify its business into the China logistics market over the next three years.

The investment will see Alipay unveil handheld devices that can be used to track parcels and accept payments for goods purchased online. The portable devices target China’s collect-on-delivery (COD) market, which according to Alipay, is the preferred method of payment for 70% of all online purchases made on China’s B2C sites, excluding those on the Alibaba Group’s Tmall.

An Alipay spokesperson stated the new service will only cater to offline payment for online purchases. The small processing fee charged to consumers will be split by Alipay (20%), banks (70%) and UnionPay (10%) – China’s bankcard association processing inter-bank transactions.

In a separate story, U.S.-based e-payment company PayPal is looking to expand its business into China. The company is currently awaiting the approval of its license application from the People’s Bank of China. PayPal, a subsidiary of eBay, submitted an application to operate in China’s domestic payments market at the end of last year.

PayPal also offers PayPal Here, a device for Apple’s iPhone that can swipe credit cards and scan checks in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Hong Kong.

Currently, no overseas companies have been awarded a permit to process domestic payments within China.

This post is excerpted from BSG's weekly e-newsletter which is part of our subscription research service, BSG Tracker. Visit our website to find out more about this service. You can also follow us on Twitter for all the latest updates.