China’s Momo Raises $40M for Casual Meetups

originally published August 28, 2012 Red Herring Editorial Team

Casual meetups in China are challenging in a culture where dating game shows are an apt way to snatch up a wealthy groom and marriage qualifies as a get-to-know-you conversation starter. Translated as “Hi, stranger” in Mandarin, Momo recently nabbed an impressive $40 million Series B round for its location-based casual encounter app, as first reported by Sina Tech.

Rumors abound that Alibaba was part of the round, though the Chinese venture firm declined comment to TECHINASIA.

The round places the company’s value at over $100 million.

Launched only a year ago, the app already has 10 million users, boasting 2.2 million daily active users and processing 40 million messages a day while adding another million users every month.

Dating in China is a challenge in a culture where men vastly outnumber women. People in Chinese culture tend to be shyer about making those early, casual connections. Sites like Jiayuan and Baihe have a popular following, but focus on connections that lead to marriage. Momo touts itself as more casually friendly, setting up dates for a single night or a few days. The company does claim that its services have inspired a few weddings, however.

Safety concerns abound, of course. Last June, a 32-year-old man was sentenced to eight years in jail for raping seven women he had connected with using Weixin, a general purpose messaging app, according to PandoDaily. Still, as Momo’s fast traction indicates, those concerns are not enough to keep the average Momo user under lock and key, watching TV with their mothers.

At its current traction, Momo is poised to hit 15 million users by the end of this year, and it’s safe to say many of those users won’t be only using the service to schedule their next tea tasting.

http://www.redherring.com/finance/chinas-momo-raises-40m-for-casual-meetups/

Company Overview of Softbank China Venture Capital

January 05, 2013 3:25 PM ET

Softbank China Venture Capital is a venture capital arm of SOFTBANK Corp. specializing in early, growth/expansion, late venture, pre-IPO stages, and first round of financing investments. The firm primarily invests in media, healthcare, cleantech, new materials, food packaging, medical treatment, new media, manufacturing, agriculture, and retail sectors. For the information technology sector, it seeks to invest in the internet, e-commerce, communications, and communication technology. For the consumer sector, the firm prefers to invest in consumer products. It typically invests between $500,000 and $10 million in its portfolio companies. The firm is generally the lead investor and seeks to acquire between 20 percent and 30 percent stake in companies post-financing. It provides incubation facilities in various parts of China to provide internet start-ups with funding, executive leadership, strategic partnerships, IT infrastructure, and operating services necessary to ensure a successful launch and orbiting. The firm's partners provide venture capital for promising Internet and e-Commerce companies. Softbank China Venture Capital was founded in 2000 and is based at Shanghai, China with additional offices at Beijing, China; Suzhou, China; Tianjin, China; and Taipei, Taiwan.

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=2127246

Asian Stocks Post Seventh Weekly Gain on U.S., China Data

By Jonathan Burgos & Eleni Himaras - Jan 4, 2013 1:29 PM PT Bloomberg News

Asian stocks rose, with the regional benchmark index posting its seventh weekly advance, after the U.S. Congress passed legislation on a budget deal and manufacturing reports from China and the U.S. added to signs of a global recovery.

Li & Fung Ltd. (494), a supplier of toys and clothes to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., jumped 7.3 percent in Hong Kong. Rio Tinto Group, the world’s second-largest mining company that gets about 31 percent of sales from China, gained 3 percent in Sydney as Chinese manufacturing expanded for a third month. Fairfax Media Ltd. surged 14 percent amid speculation billionaire Gina Rinehart and investor John Singleton may seek control of the newspaper publisher.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 1.8 percent to 131.89 in its seventh weekly advance, the longest such winning streak since March last year. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average jumped 2.8 percent yesterday in Japan’s first trading day of the year, closing at the highest level since March 2011. The MSCI Asia Pacific Excluding Japan Index (MXAPJ) rose 2 percent this week.

“The global economic outlook is improving,” Shane Oliver, Sydney-based head of strategy at AMP Capital Investors Ltd., which has almost $130 billion under management, said. “That will underpin further gains in share markets along with very easy monetary conditions. That probability of the fiscal cliff and a U.S. recession has been taken out.”

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 1.1 percent this week. South Korea’s Kospi Index (KOSPI) added 0.8 percent. Taiwan’s Taiex Index rose 1.4 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 2.9 percent.

China Recovery
The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) advanced 2 percent. A gauge of China’s manufacturing on Jan. 1 showed a third month of expansion in December, adding evidence that the recovery in the world’s second-biggest economy will extend into the new year. The nation’s services industries expanded at the fastest pace in four months, an index showed yesterday.

The regional benchmark MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) surged 14 percent in 2012 as central banks from the U.S., Europe, Japan and China took action to spur economic growth. The Asia Pacific gauge traded at 14.1 times average estimated earnings, compared with about 13.2 times for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and about 11.9 times for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Exporters advanced as manufacturing in the U.S., a major market for Asian companies from carmakers to electronics manufacturers, expanded in December. The U.S. Congress passed budget legislation, breaking a yearlong impasse over how to head off automatic tax increases and spending cuts. Failure to resolve the so-called fiscal cliff might have dragged the U.S. economy into a recession.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-04/asian-stocks-post-seventh-weekly-gain-on-u-s-china-data.html

Japanese Buys $1.76 Million Tuna to Beat Hong Kong Rival

By Anna Mukai & Yuki Yamaguchi - Jan 5, 2013 7:00 AM PT Bloomberg News

Kiyomura K.K., a Tokyo-based sushi chain, paid a record 155.4 million yen ($1.76 million) to outbid an affiliate of a Hong Kong-based rival for a tuna it said would be enjoyed by Chinese and Japanese customers alike.

The fresh whole tuna weighed 222 kilograms (489 pounds) at the market’s first auction of 2013 yesterday. The price compares with the 56 million yen Kiyomura paid last year to take an auction Itamae Sushi Japan K.K., an affiliate of the Hong Kong- based Taste of Japan Group, won the previous year.

Kiyomura paid a record 155.4 million yen ($1.76 million) for the fresh whole tuna weighing 222 kilograms (489 pounds), sold at the market’s first auction of 2013. Photographer: Noriyuki Aida/Bloomberg

Kiyomura could lose as much as 154 million yen on the purchase, based on the estimated 15,540 yen it paid for each piece of sushi and the minimum 128 yen it charges per serving. The chain’s president said last year it made the record bid to ensure the fish was won by a Japanese following the March 11, 2011, earthquake. This year, amid heightened geopolitical tension with China, President Kiyoshi Kimura said he expected people from both countries to partake.

“There are some political difficulties, but Japanese customers and Chinese customers come to our restaurant, and what we want is for everyone to enjoy our sushi,” Kimura said in an interview at his Tsukiji restaurant after the 5:30 a.m. auction. He said that while his bid was “expensive,” the company would serve the auspicious fish at regular prices.

By 3:30 a.m., bidders had begun arriving at the warehouse- like tuna auction building to inspect the fish. Two hours later, at the ring of a hand-bell, traders started thrusting arms up, hands signaling the amounts of their bids. Seconds later, the deal was done for the year’s first tuna.
Global Pace

Auctions at Tsukiji, the world’s largest fish market that stretches over an area the size of 43 football fields, influence prices all over the world, according to Sasha Issenberg, author of “The Sushi Economy.”

“It’s like a combination of Wall Street and Sotheby’s in the art market and a commodities trading floor,” he said.

Itamae had bid as much as 151 million yen for the fish, Makoto Kondo, a spokesman for the Hong Kong-based sushi chain, said by phone yesterday. He also said the company’s intention was to share the fish with Japanese customers.

“Until last year, we took the tuna to our customers overseas, but we really wanted to deliver it to the Japanese people, so the fact that we lost is very unfortunate,” Kondo said.

The bluefin, caught off the coast of Japan’s northeastern Aomori prefecture, will be carved into about 10,000 pieces of sushi, Kimura of Kiyomura said.
Fish Country

Japanese eat more fish per capita than any other developed country, consuming about 56.7 kilograms (128 pounds) annually, compared with a global average of 17.1 kilograms, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

The winning bid for tuna at the first auction of the year at Tsukiji averaged about 14.5 million yen over the past 10 years, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market website. Daily trading volume at Tsukiji averaged about 1.55 billion yen in 2011, according to Hiroshi Mochizuki, a spokesman for the market.

Tsukiji, where visitors gather as early as 4 a.m. Tokyo time to observe competing buyers using hand signals to bid at tuna auctions, is listed among Japan’s most popular attractions by the Japan National Tourism Organization.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has delayed plans to relocate fish market to neighboring Koto Ward by a year as soil decontamination at the new site is taking longer than expected, the Nikkei newspaper reported Dec. 31, 2012.

Tensions between Japan and China escalated last year after Japan nationalized a set of South China Sea islands claimed by both countries.

To contact the reporters on this story: Anna Mukai in Tokyo at amukai1@bloomberg.net; Yuki Yamaguchi in 東京 at yyamaguchi10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-05/sushi-chain-says-1-76-million-tuna-buy-may-aid-japan-china-ties.html