MEHK joins meeting industry alphabet soup

We reported last month on the Hong Kong government's HK$150 million boost to spending on MICE promotion. According to TTG Asia's daily e-newsletter (very useful, by the way), the first major fruit of this will be the establishment by Hong Kong Tourism Board of "an independent MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) arm for event organisers...branded as Meetings and Exhibition Hong Kong (MEHK)".

The piece goes on to quote HKTB executive director, Mr Anthony Lau saying "The overall proposal needs to be approved by the Board and government's Steering Committee for MICE in May 2008. We hope things will materialise in summer. Hopefully, we will expand the MICE team to around 30 gradually as it takes time to recruit the right people."

...and then there were 5

Those who have been with us for a while may recall that I wrote last October about what I called MICE media mayhem. If you can drag yourself past the awful tabloid alliteration, my basic point was that four regional magazines covering business events in Asia seemed like an awful lot.

"Not so", says the market. TTG MICE, Reed's Events, Panacea's Mix and Haymarket's CEI Asia/Pacific are now joined by MICE in Asia from Red Robin Publishing in Malaysia. This one's a quarterly and is busily building ties with MICE events and organisations around the region. Good luck to them.

It would be unkind to propose an office sweepstake for the first to fall, especially as the whole of Reed Business Information is currently up for sale (no thanks, said APAX).

Of drop-shipping and Ali-Rule Brittania

I am back early from my trip as a result of a piece of good seamanship by the crew of the boat on which I was going to sail back from the Philippines (see here if you're interested to know more about this).

This has allowed me to spend today catching up on what's been going on in the world since I sat on that very white beach in Boracay. One result of that is that I've learned a new word today, "drop-shipping" from this press release on the eMedia Wire. It defines it as:

Drop shipping is a supply chain technique where the retailer, or eBay trader, transfers their customers' shipment details to the wholesaler, who then ships the goods to their clients' customers.

The piece also introduced to an interesting, Shenzhen-based web site that I wasn't aware of, Chinavasion. The site claims to be "the market leading China supplier for EBay dropship sellers and electronics worldwide". To see the lengths that the smaller China based B2B sites have to stretch to persuade now (justifiably) cautious users that they are legit see this exchange at Fraudwatchers. Note the pretty coherent interventions from Chinavasion's own people.

Meanwhile, for those looking to redress the trade imbalance a bit, the UK's Daily Telegraph reports that Alibaba is proposing to set up a site called Export to China, Export to the World. The piece suggests that Alibaba has 268,000 members in the UK and will be targeting them for its new site. I'm eager to see the first China-based Internet forum complaining about being ripped off by exporters in Slough.

Going off line

This blog and I are taking a 10 day break in the Philippines. Please don't do anything too exciting while I'm away and especially not when I'm sailing back next week.

Jack 'n Bill won't play well together

Reports that Jack Ma does not want Alibaba to fall into Microsoft's world when the latter buys Yahoo! have generated some painful headlines. Yahoo! owns 39% of Alibaba after what we called the Yahoolibaba deal when it happened a couple of years ago.

Here's a small selection:

Motley Fool says: Alibaba and the Microhoo Thieves
Forbes pains us with : Alibaba Rubbing Lamps to Buy Back Yahoo! Stake

How about this, from Wired's blogsite, for a good additional level of rumour-mongering: " if Alibaba.com is really looking to buy the stake currently owned by Yahoo (as reported by Reuters), Google would likely be the perfect fit", writes Betty Schiffman. You have to say that the idea of Jack Ma sitting in a board meeting with Sergey Brin sounds altogether more probable than the unpleasant prospect of Steve Ballmer trying to bully him around.

Alibaba beats all estimates

This from my colleague Mark Cochrane. It seems that they have beaten all the profit estimates and turned in very good margins.

Let's see how much of a boost that gives them tomorrow:

Net profit: RMB 967.8 million (US$137 million)
Up 340% year on year
Revenues RMB 2.16 billion (US$278 million

Estimates:

Alibaba RMB 622 million
Goldman RMB 947 million
Cazenove RMB 889 million

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080318/alibaba_results.html?.v=3

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idCNTHKG29845320080318?rpc=44

Actually remarkable margins when compared to the competition.
Sent via BlackBerry.

Ali-where to?

With the stock down 15 - 20% this morning, below $13 and it's IPO price, many might wonder where to now?

Market cap at the lunch time close was US$8.46 bn. That's less than a third of its peak but still not exactly chump change and still 5-6 times what the market says Global Sources is worth.

All eyes will be on the upcoming results announcement. We have to hope for their sake that they hit their numbers!
Sent via BlackBerry.

Smulders' event incorporated into UFI programme

I'm sitting in Beijing where the events in T****t are making internet access even more patchy than usual. I did, though want to pass on this interesting news of UFI's decision to take Seven Smulders' International CEO Forum under its wing. Good for both I'd say. The last event took place in Dubai in January.

The press release says:

Paris, March 11, 2008: UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry has announced that beginning in January 2009 it will launch the “UFI Global CEO Forum for Exhibition Organizers” (UCF). Cliff Wallace, UFI President, announced the new event structure which will keep Seven Smulders, who previously led the exhibition industry’s “International CEO Forum” (ICF), at the head of the UCF programme management, and the Netherlands Council for Trade Promotion (NCH) as a coordinating body for the UCF. Wallace pointed out that “this by-invitation-only event provides a key opportunity for CEO’s of exhibition organising companies from around the globe to identify and discuss the challenges facing the exhibition media and to seek ways to develop new forms of cooperation.” This addition to the UFI portfolio enhances the educational development opportunities for UFI’s members and the industry, one of Wallace’s key goals as UFI President.

Seven Smulders, who has successfully developed the ICF annual programme since 2002, agrees that the incorporation of the UCF into the UFI portfolio will allow it to progress the previous ICF concept to a new level. “This three year agreement,” said Smulders, “seems a natural match for both organisations. As in the past, the UCF will be open to the CEO’s of exhibition organising companies, whether they are UFI members or not. By limiting attendance to 100 senior level participants, we are able to provide a unique forum for our industry decision makers.” On a very restricted basis, CEOs from exhibition venues and service providers may participate in the UCF if they agree to support the event as industry sponsors.

Vincent Gerard, UFI Managing Director, stated, “UFI has wanted to offer the exhibition industry a quality CEO programme for some time. We look forward to working with Seven Smulders and the NCH team to further develop this unique programme opportunity.”

Funny old day on the market for HC

They may have been dumped fairly unceremoniously by prospective marriage partners Global Sources and their share had been down from a 52 week high of HK$1.65 to below HK$0.50, but something went on today late afternoon and HC International's share price shot up 53% to close at HK$0.75. Volume was just 674,000 units, worth HK$500,000 at the closing price.

The price has been bouncing around for a few days and CEO Guo Fansheng yesterday issued a notice to the market in which he said "The board of directors (the “Board”) of HC International, Inc. (the “Company”) has noted the change in price and increase in trading volume of the shares of the Company (the “Shares”) on 13 March, 2008 and wish to state that the Board is not aware of any reason for such change". Hmmm. Something's up.

Fast growth disguises challenges

I have become increasingly convinced in recent months that print publishers in China and India have a problem: they are growing too quickly. When ad pages are still growing, there is less incentive to take some of the tough decisions being faced by their counterparts in the US and Europe.

However, despite the active environment for new magazine and newspaper launches in both the Asian giants, they are not immune from the underlying changes in the ways in which media is used. Once those changes begin to take hold, they will face challenges just as great as those trying publishers elsewhere in the world.

I was relieved to see that I am not alone in this view when I read the comments of India Today CEO Ashish Bagga over on contentsutra.com. I encourage you to read the whole thing but the jist of his point is:

“though print is growing, if you look at the advertising projections for the next 10 years, sure, it’s going to grow, but its it going to grow the way it grew? There are other media forms, including mobile, and telco’s are looking to address the advertising potential. Advertising revenues for print are increasing, but it’s increasing at a decreasing rate. The moment you reailze that gross margins are 25 percent, 23 percent, 20 percent - what’s the trend? If we don’t sow the seeds of investment for the next generation, we have a problem on our hands.”