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> Kemian Wood Industry, which used to boast of the quality of its composite floorboards, took radical steps to deal with the downturn. It switched its focus to

by smaili 11y ago

> Kemian Wood Industry, which used to boast of the quality of its composite floorboards, took radical steps to deal with the downturn. It switched its focus to online gaming and changed its name. > A hotel group rebranded itself as a high-speed rail company, a fireworks maker as a peer-to-peer lender and a ceramics specialist as a clean-energy group. I've heard of pivoting, but this goes way beyond that. Doing a complete 180 on what you're producing/selling and changing your name? That's both fascinating and scary at the same time. As a customer, how do you know whether the company you're buying from will still be around?

88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
I think it's worth entertaining the possibility that these companies are not actually producing anything after their "pivot" but are just bilking investors.
pcrh 11y ago
It makes you wonder what the determinants of success are for a Chinese business. Would you trust cars made by Nike, if they suddenly started making them, or a airline run by the Hilton Group?
- ngd 11y ago
  How about an airline run my a record label?
  - supercanuck 11y ago
    or spaceships.
    - timlovelee 11y ago
      LG makes Shampoo
      - meatysnapper 11y ago
        Giant industrial conglomerates are a totally different case. We are talking about a normal, single-product/field company switching to something totally unrelated. That's totally insane.
      - vardump 11y ago
        Samsung makes killer robots and tankers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_SGR-A1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_SGR-A1 https://www.shi.samsung.co.kr/eng/Pr/shipstory0201.aspx https://www.shi.samsung.co.kr/eng/Pr/shipstory0201.aspx
        toomuchtodo 11y ago
        Google makes robotic pack dogs for DARPA: http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/14/5209622/google-has-bought-robotics-company-boston-dynamics http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/14/5209622/google-has-bought... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8YjvHYbZ9w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8YjvHYbZ9w
        digi_owl 11y ago
        Didn't they drop that contract?
  - pcrh 11y ago
    Virgin is a bit of an exception. At the beginning it merely chartered aircraft run by others; it was a branding exercise rather than managing and running aircraft. Conglomerates like GE do anything and everything, but the companies cited in the article appears to be relatively small, e.g.from making only floorboards to online gaming is quite a shift in operational requirements.
    - ZeroGravitas 11y ago
      Nokia used to make a big deal about their background in paper mills, rubber boots etc. http://company.nokia.com/en/about-us/our-company/our-story http://company.nokia.com/en/about-us/our-company/our-story
      - jpatokal 11y ago
        Nokia had a natural progression though. Rubber, rubber-coated cables and wires, analog telephone switches full of wiring, digital telephone switches full of software, mobile phones that talk to those switches! And this took about a hundred years.
- saryant 11y ago
  Well, Hilton used to be owned by TWA and later United.
  - lttlrck 11y ago
    That's nothing like pivoting.
    - saryant 11y ago
      I was just pointing out a piece of historical trivia.
jdhawk 11y ago
This probably has more to do with the extreme pain of licensing a new business in China.
xyzzy123 11y ago
Most of these seem to be more or less "backdoor listings". A company that wants to list (Zeus Interactive in this case) essentially "buys" a stock symbol by merging with a defunct or flagging company (Dalian Kemian). It's easier to list this way than doing an IPO. So it's not really a "pivot" and I feel that the article is slightly misleading on this front. E.g. for Kemian Wood see: https://zephyr.bvdinfo.com/version-2015528/FullEditorialNews.serv?databaseContext=Deals&NewsId=16342&product=zephyrneo https://zephyr.bvdinfo.com/version-2015528/FullEditorialNews... This is quite common in Australia, I hadn't realised it was a thing in China until now. In Australia there are fair number of zombie listings from mining / prospecting ventures that didn't pan out. Often they're wound back to basically being a P.O box. It is very, very common for tech companies to list by doing a reverse merger with a zombie. See: http://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/investment-banking/record-numbers-queuing-up-for-backdoor-listings-20140929-jl71k http://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/investment-b... for more details.

by smaili 11y ago

88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago

I think it's worth entertaining the possibility that these companies are not actually producing anything after their "pivot" but are just bilking investors.

pcrh 11y ago

It makes you wonder what the determinants of success are for a Chinese business. Would you trust cars made by Nike, if they suddenly started making them, or a airline run by the Hilton Group?

ngd 11y ago
How about an airline run my a record label?
- supercanuck 11y ago
  or spaceships.
  - timlovelee 11y ago
    LG makes Shampoo
    - meatysnapper 11y ago
      Giant industrial conglomerates are a totally different case. We are talking about a normal, single-product/field company switching to something totally unrelated. That's totally insane.
    - vardump 11y ago
      Samsung makes killer robots and tankers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_SGR-A1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_SGR-A1 https://www.shi.samsung.co.kr/eng/Pr/shipstory0201.aspx https://www.shi.samsung.co.kr/eng/Pr/shipstory0201.aspx
      - toomuchtodo 11y ago
        Google makes robotic pack dogs for DARPA: http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/14/5209622/google-has-bought-robotics-company-boston-dynamics http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/14/5209622/google-has-bought... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8YjvHYbZ9w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8YjvHYbZ9w
        digi_owl 11y ago
        Didn't they drop that contract?
- pcrh 11y ago
  Virgin is a bit of an exception. At the beginning it merely chartered aircraft run by others; it was a branding exercise rather than managing and running aircraft. Conglomerates like GE do anything and everything, but the companies cited in the article appears to be relatively small, e.g.from making only floorboards to online gaming is quite a shift in operational requirements.
  - ZeroGravitas 11y ago
    Nokia used to make a big deal about their background in paper mills, rubber boots etc. http://company.nokia.com/en/about-us/our-company/our-story http://company.nokia.com/en/about-us/our-company/our-story
    - jpatokal 11y ago
      Nokia had a natural progression though. Rubber, rubber-coated cables and wires, analog telephone switches full of wiring, digital telephone switches full of software, mobile phones that talk to those switches! And this took about a hundred years.
saryant 11y ago
Well, Hilton used to be owned by TWA and later United.
- lttlrck 11y ago
  That's nothing like pivoting.
  - saryant 11y ago
    I was just pointing out a piece of historical trivia.

jdhawk 11y ago

This probably has more to do with the extreme pain of licensing a new business in China.

xyzzy123 11y ago

Most of these seem to be more or less "backdoor listings". A company that wants to list (Zeus Interactive in this case) essentially "buys" a stock symbol by merging with a defunct or flagging company (Dalian Kemian). It's easier to list this way than doing an IPO. So it's not really a "pivot" and I feel that the article is slightly misleading on this front. E.g. for Kemian Wood see: https://zephyr.bvdinfo.com/version-2015528/FullEditorialNews.serv?databaseContext=Deals&NewsId=16342&product=zephyrneo https://zephyr.bvdinfo.com/version-2015528/FullEditorialNews... This is quite common in Australia, I hadn't realised it was a thing in China until now. In Australia there are fair number of zombie listings from mining / prospecting ventures that didn't pan out. Often they're wound back to basically being a P.O box. It is very, very common for tech companies to list by doing a reverse merger with a zombie. See: http://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/investment-banking/record-numbers-queuing-up-for-backdoor-listings-20140929-jl71k http://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/investment-b... for more details.