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I would compare it to Google/Alphabet. They have acquired enough companies and have a tight relationship with enough autonomous projects to need the structure o

by bertil 9y ago

I would compare it to Google/Alphabet. They have acquired enough companies and have a tight relationship with enough autonomous projects to need the structure of a holding, but the place remains at its core a technology company. Google decided to brand the holding differently, which probably makes good marketing sense.

hkmurakami 9y ago
Imo it's closer to what Softbank is doing, since so few of the arms are home grown.
- umeshunni 9y ago
  But what're the core tech products SoftBank produces?
  - hkmurakami 9y ago
    I'd say mobile search and mobile web services, since Yahoo Japan was/is a legitimate joint venture by Softbank and Yahoo where they started it from the ground up, and the services being pre installed on Softbank phones made a huge strategic impact on user adoption. They are the low cost leader in mobile telephony, have a vast solar operation (heavy govt subsidies), and have a powerful contract software Salesforce.
baq 9y ago
can't help but wonder if alphabet would be allowed to buy 12% of wechat if it wanted to.
- sdm 9y ago
  WeChat is not an independent company; the comparison doesn't really apply. But to your point, the biggest single share holder of Tencent is Naspers -- a South African company -- which at it's hight owned 45% of the company but currently owns about 35%. Their orignal investment of US$18M is now worth over US$115B. Foreign companies have a long long history of taking major stakes in Chinese tech companies. Softbank and Yahoo both had major stakes in Alibaba. The large American VCs tend to be fairly active in China. Also anyone can go buy shares in Tencent themselves. They are a major part of my portfolio. And if you don't want to buy them directly then KWEB is a great ETF that focuses on the China tech industry. BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) makes up the majority of KWEB. Edit: Maybe you meant Alphabet specifically. Yes, that could be more difficult because of Google's long history of operating more as an extension of the US State Department than a private company.

by bertil 9y ago

hkmurakami 9y ago

Imo it's closer to what Softbank is doing, since so few of the arms are home grown.

umeshunni 9y ago
But what're the core tech products SoftBank produces?
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  I'd say mobile search and mobile web services, since Yahoo Japan was/is a legitimate joint venture by Softbank and Yahoo where they started it from the ground up, and the services being pre installed on Softbank phones made a huge strategic impact on user adoption. They are the low cost leader in mobile telephony, have a vast solar operation (heavy govt subsidies), and have a powerful contract software Salesforce.

baq 9y ago

can't help but wonder if alphabet would be allowed to buy 12% of wechat if it wanted to.

sdm 9y ago
WeChat is not an independent company; the comparison doesn't really apply. But to your point, the biggest single share holder of Tencent is Naspers -- a South African company -- which at it's hight owned 45% of the company but currently owns about 35%. Their orignal investment of US$18M is now worth over US$115B. Foreign companies have a long long history of taking major stakes in Chinese tech companies. Softbank and Yahoo both had major stakes in Alibaba. The large American VCs tend to be fairly active in China. Also anyone can go buy shares in Tencent themselves. They are a major part of my portfolio. And if you don't want to buy them directly then KWEB is a great ETF that focuses on the China tech industry. BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) makes up the majority of KWEB. Edit: Maybe you meant Alphabet specifically. Yes, that could be more difficult because of Google's long history of operating more as an extension of the US State Department than a private company.