SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Dec 15 (Reuters) – China’s top search engine, Baidu Inc (BIDU.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), sees its top-line and bottom-line growth rates softening over the next year on a higher base of comparison, as it eyes acquisitions and “contextual” ads to boost growth in the future.

“No … We have such a bigger base,” Haoyu Shen, Baidu’s senior vice president of business operations, said at the Reuters China Investment Summit when asked whether the firm can keep up its stellar top and bottom-line growth rates into 2011.

Baidu said in October its third-quarter net profit more than doubled compared to a year ago, while its revenue almost doubled. [ID:nN21118741]

“We had a major re-acceleration this year, and that’s due to a few reasons,” said Shen, citing the rebound in the Chinese economy, the switchover to its new keyword advertising system and Google’s (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) scaling down in China.

“For these reasons, it most likely won’t repeat itself next year,” he said.

Baidu shares have soared more than 160 percent this year after the firm’s main competitor, Google Inc, said it would shut its China search page after a serious hacking episode and on censorship concerns.

Shen said the “Google effect” — an increase in traffic resulting from disruption in U.S. company’s Chinese operations earlier this year — boosted Baidu’s business by a small amount and is largely over by now. He said Baidu’s strong performance so far this year was due to the introduction of its Phoenix Nest keyword advertising system late last year, which was ramped up fully this year.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s top search engine, Baidu Inc (BIDU.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), sees its top-line and bottom-line growth rates softening over the next year on a higher base of comparison, as it eyes acquisitions and “contextual” ads to boost growth in the future.

“No … We have such a bigger base,” Haoyu Shen, Baidu’s senior vice president of business operations, said at the Reuters China Investment Summit when asked whether the firm can keep up its stellar top and bottom-line growth rates into 2011.

Baidu said in October its third-quarter net profit more than doubled compared to a year ago, while its revenue almost doubled.

“We had a major re-acceleration this year, and that’s due to a few reasons,” said Shen, citing the rebound in the Chinese economy, the switchover to its new keyword advertising system and Google’s (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) scaling down in China.

“For these reasons, it most likely won’t repeat itself next year,” he said.

Baidu shares have soared more than 160 percent this year after the firm’s main competitor, Google Inc, said it would shut its China search page after a serious hacking episode and on censorship concerns.

Shen said the “Google effect” — an increase in traffic resulting from disruption in U.S. company’s Chinese operations earlier this year — boosted Baidu’s business by a small amount and is largely over by now. He said Baidu’s strong performance so far this year was due to the introduction of its Phoenix Nest keyword advertising system late last year, which was ramped up fully this year.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Dec 15 (Reuters) – China’s top search engine, Baidu Inc (BIDU.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), sees its top-line and bottom-line growth rates softening over the next year on a higher base of comparison, as it eyes acquisitions and “contextual” ads to boost growth in the future.

“No … We have such a bigger base,” Haoyu Shen, Baidu’s senior vice president of business operations, said at the Reuters China Investment Summit when asked whether the firm can keep up its stellar top and bottom-line growth rates into 2011.

Baidu said in October its third-quarter net profit more than doubled compared to a year ago, while its revenue almost doubled. [ID:nN21118741]

“We had a major re-acceleration this year, and that’s due to a few reasons,” said Shen, citing the rebound in the Chinese economy, the switchover to its new keyword advertising system and Google’s (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) scaling down in China.

“For these reasons, it most likely won’t repeat itself next year,” he said.

Baidu shares have soared more than 160 percent this year after the firm’s main competitor, Google Inc, said it would shut its China search page after a serious hacking episode and on censorship concerns.

Shen said the “Google effect” — an increase in traffic resulting from disruption in U.S. company’s Chinese operations earlier this year — boosted Baidu’s business by a small amount and is largely over by now. He said Baidu’s strong performance so far this year was due to the introduction of its Phoenix Nest keyword advertising system late last year, which was ramped up fully this year.

NEW YORK/SHANGHAI, Dec 10 (Reuters) – U.S. investors seem to have an insatiable appetite for new Chinese tech stocks, and some analysts wonder if the great tech bubble of the late 1990s is repeating itself.

Online video company Youku.com Inc YOKU.N, sometimes referred to as the YouTube of China, sold shares in its IPO on Tuesday, and rose 161 percent on its first day of trading, locking in the best first day returns of an IPO in five years.[ID:nN08142271]

Youku’s revenue was up 135 percent in the first nine months of 2010 compared with a year earlier. But one thing the company does not have is profit: its net loss widened by 22.5 percent to 167 million yuan ($25.1 million) in the same period.

The U.S. has seen this before, and it did not end well.

In the late 1990s, companies with little more than a business plan were able to raise millions of dollars in initial public offerings. But in March 2000, the market started to deflate, and the Nasdaq Composite, where many tech stocks were listed, is still well below its prior peak.

Come January, the Nasdaq will have 11 employees combing China looking for new businesses to list, said Bob McCooey, head of listings for the exchange. That compares to two in the United States, he added.

“Outside of the United States it’s China that is driving the IPO market,” said McCooey, who also had his business cards printed in both English and Mandarin.

SHANGHAI0 (Reuters) – One of China’s largest social networking companies, Oak Pacific Interactive, has hired investment banks for an initial public offering in the United States next year, the first in a rush of Chinese Facebook clones looking to list.

Oak Pacific Interactive (OPI) has hired Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG to underwrite its IPO slated for the first half of next year, sources close to the matter told Reuters on Friday.

The firm owns China’s largest online social networking site Renren and Nuomi, similar to the popular U.S. website Groupon featuring daily deals and entertainment community Mop.

TaoMee, a social networking site for children, was also planning to list late next year and would conduct its “beauty parade” for investment banks in the first quarter of 2011, said a source familiar with the situation.

Social networking site Kaixin001 also plans to list but has not gone through the process of selecting banks, said the source, who declined to be named as the matter was not public.

“The question is whether these companies are really going to become the Facebook of China,” said Paul Wuh, a Hong Kong-based analyst with Samsung Securities.

“How they are going to monetise: through advertising or through gaming, that’s the question, which one will be the most successful will depend on the business model they choose,” said Wuh.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – One of China’s largest social networking companies, Oak Pacific Interactive, has hired investment banks for an initial public offering in the United States in the first half of next year, sources close to the matter told Reuters on Friday.

Oak Pacific Interactive (OPI), owns Renren, China’s largest online social networking site, Nuomi, a website featuring daily deals, and online community Mop.

Two successful IPOs in the U.S. by Chinese technology companies have prompted others to follow suit, aiming to list in a market with the potential for higher valuations.

TaoMee, a social networking site for children, was also planning to list late next year and would conduct its “beauty parade” for investment banks in the first quarter of 2011, said a source familiar with the situation.

Both companies will be following in the footsteps of online video site operator Youku.com Inc and online retailer E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc, which saw their stocks soar on this week’s debuts.

Youku’s triple-digit first-day pop was the biggest since 2005, when Baidu Inc rose 354 percent, according to data from the New York Stock Exchange.

Oak Pacific Interactive had hired Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG to underwrite the IPO, the sources said. The banks declined to comment.

SHANGHAI, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Chinese companies are poised to acquire smaller, intellectual property-rich (IP) technology firms overseas, fuelled by the country’s ambitious drive to converge its television, telephone and Internet networks.

Potential deals could come from companies such as Huawei and ZTE Corp that are looking for targets with an edge in the fibre optics and network equipment markets.

An all cash bid by China’s Xinmao Group to gatecrash an all-European cable industry takeover with a 1 billion euro ($1.3 billion) offer for Dutch firm Draka highlights how less established companies are also seeking to benefit from a boom in fibre optics.

China is expected to have up to $100 billion in investment opportunities by 2015 to fully roll out “Triple Play” — the convergence of television, Internet and telephone networks. Many Chinese companies want to build to scale ahead of this to benefit from this business opportunity.

“China is at a stage where it would like to not open its doors to a host of foreign vendors to win all the plump contracts in a new platform initiative, but instead have domestic vendors win that,” said Mark Natkin, managing director of technology consulting firm Marbridge Consulting.

FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies Co Ltd and Jiangsu Zhongtian Technology could be among the other Chinese companies looking for overseas acquisitions.

PacketFront, a Swedish company that specialises in networking products and cable maker Belden Inc could potentially turn up on the radar screen of acquirers.

SHANGHAI/NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Investors hoping to get a piece of the action in the booming online video industry might be better off skipping a pair of upcoming Chinese IPOs and waiting for U.S.-based Hulu to come to market.

Youku.com Inc and Tudou Holdings Inc — the YouTubes of the world’s No. 2 Internet arena — are both set to list on U.S. exchanges, starting with Youku next week.

The fledgling Web powerhouses are enjoying sizzling revenue growth. Tudou’s net revenue has grown by an average 317 percent over the past two years, and for the first nine months of 2010 revenue rose 230 percent from a year earlier.

Youku’s revenue increased by an average of 1,000 percent a year over the past two years, and was up 135 percent in the first nine months of the year over the year-earlier period.

But neither company has ever made even 1 yuan in profit.

Both are also having to fend off scores of competitors in the red-hot Chinese online video market, and analysts question whether they have a compelling business model.

“The growth aspects of this industry are very attractive. But attractive end-market growth doesn’t necessarily translate into an attractive investment opportunity,” said Morningstar IPO analyst Michael Gaiden.

SHANGHAI, Nov 29 (Reuters) – China’s top two online video sites, Youku and Tudou, are set to make their U.S. trading debuts over the next few months.

With similar offerings and near identical business models, here are some questions and answers about the companies.

Earlier this month, Tudou filed for an IPO of up to $120 million, while Youku said it will raise up to $169 million.

WHAT IS THEIR FINANCIAL FOOTING?

YouKu and Tudou are both online video websites that stream video clips to millions of Chinese users. Their main source of revenue is advertising. According to documents filed with the SEC, Youku’s net revenue for the first nine months of the year was $35.1 million while Tudou’s was $33.6 million.

Tudou’s net revenue has grown an average of 317 percent over the past two years and for the first nine months of the year rose 230 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

Youku averaged a net revenue growth rate of over 1,000 percent over the past two years and saw its revenue rise 135 percent in the first nine months of the year over the previous year.

SHANGHAI, Nov 29 (Reuters) – China’s top two online video sites, Youku and Tudou, are set to make their Nasdaq trading debut over the next few months.

With similar offerings and near identical business models, here are some questions and answers about the companies.

Earlier this month, Tudou filed for an IPO of up to $120 million, while Youku said it will raise up to $169 million.

WHAT IS THEIR FINANCIAL FOOTING?

YouKu and Tudou are both online video websites that stream video clips to millions of Chinese users. Their main source of revenue is advertising. According to documents filed with the SEC, Youku’s net revenue for the first nine months of the year was $35.1 million while Tudou’s was $33.6 million.

Tudou’s net revenues have grown an average of 317 percent over the past two years and for the first nine months of the year rose 230 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Youku averaged a net revenue growth rate of over 1000 percent over the past two years and saw its revenues up 135 percent in the first nine months of the year over the previous year.

On the cost front, Youku’s total operating expenses and cost of revenues collectively was about a third more than Tudou’s in the first nine months of this year.