SHANGHAI, April 27 (Reuters) – Shares of China’s People.cn Co Ltd surged more than 75 percent on their first day of trading in Shanghai, as investors flocked to the state-backed news portal, giving it a bigger market capitalization than the New York Times.

Demand was so high that after an hour of trading, shares of People.cn, the online news portal of Chinese government mouthpiece the People’s Daily, were temporarily suspended after triggering the stock exchange’s circuit breaker of rising more 10 percent from its opening price.

“Investors are scrambling for People.cn due to its scarcity. As long as you’re a Chinese person, you would know the company,” said Liu Guanwu, a media IPO analyst with Beijing-based consultancy, Analysys International.

As of 0302 GMT, the shares were at 35.28 yuan, 76 percent higher than the initial public offering price of 20 yuan.

Based on that price, People.cn is worth 9.75 billion yuan ($1.6 billion), more than New York Times Co, which has a market capitalization of $951 million.

Beijing has actively encouraged its state-owned news media organizations to list in the domestic market in order to secure capital to improve services and extend Beijing’s control in the free-wheeling Internet sector.

Xinhuanet, the Internet portal of state news agency Xinhua, is also set to raise 1 billion yuan in Shanghai, but like People.cn, it will have to compete hard for advertising dollars with new media Internet darlings Sina Corp and Sohu.com Inc.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Apple Inc’s blowout quarterly iPhone sales in China show that a barrage of bad publicity hasn’t dented demand. Now, it has to find a way to sell more smartphones in the world’s biggest mobile market, without its fans jumping the paywall.

iPhone sales surged in China after Apple signed up China Telecom Corp to sell the device last month – the second of the country’s ‘big three’ carriers to get the iPhone. The biggest, China Mobile Ltd, which has over 600 million subscribers, doesn’t yet have compatible technology.

“Based on what we’ve observed so far, we’ve seen a tremendous uptick in CDMA iPhones,” said IDC analyst Wong Teck-Zhung. “The key factor is that they signed with China Telecom and expanded their carrier operations.”

Apple sells the international 3G standard iPhone through China Unicom and a CDMA version through China Telecom. China Mobile’s domestic 3G standard does not have a compatible iPhone version.

Cupertino, California-based Apple has faced a raft of negative publicity in China in recent years, including worker suicides at its supplier Foxconn Technology and accusations from Chinese groups blaming the U.S. firm for environmental pollution, and copyright and trademark infringement.

That page appears to be turning as Apple reported a five-fold increase in iPhone sales in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong in January-March, driving up its greater China revenue to $7.9 billion. Its publicity machine has also been helped by a deal with Foxconn to ensure proper working conditions at its factories.

A next watershed would be a deal to sign up China Mobile to a carrier deal on the iPhone 5, expected to be released to the market in the third quarter.

By Melanie Lee and Alexei Oreskovic

(Reuters) – Baidu Inc (BIDU.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), China’s leading Internet search company, set off alarm bells on Wall Street after a disappointing second-quarter revenue forecast raised doubts on its growth prospects and knocked down its shares more than 10 percent after hours.

The tepid outlook from Baidu, which had consistently blown past investors’ expectations thus far, brought up questions on whether emerging competition from the likes of Alibaba Group would wear it down and if it could make a success of recent moves into other lucrative Internet sectors such as ecommerce.

Baidu posted on Tuesday first-quarter results that were in line with analysts’ estimates. But the second-quarter revenue forecast was at the low end of Wall Street’s expectations, with the midpoint of the range at $857.1 million against the $862.8 million seen by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

“At the end of the day, people expect these companies to beat numbers. They have a track record of usually beating,” said Raymond James analyst Aaron Kessler.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the revenue forecast showed 25-28 percent growth.

“Baidu has never done anything below 35 percent sequential growth in the second quarter, so to guide in the high-twenties is certainly a significant revenue deceleration,” said Hong Kong-based Nomura analyst Jin Yoon.

SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) – China’s hot Internet sector is facing a problem it is unaccustomed to: a lack of money.

The world’s largest Internet market, with nearly half a billion users, gave birth to some of the world’s most vibrant Internet firms, such as Baidu Inc and Tencent Holdings. Venture capitalists bankrolled them, making knockout returns after the firms’ successful U.S. listings in the mid- to latter half of the previous decade.

But a slew of accounting scandals and fears that the corporate structures used by China’s Internet firms could face greater scrutiny from Chinese authorities have spooked U.S. investors in the past year, dulling their appetite for initial public offerings.

With IPO exits blocked, venture capital funds have dried up.

“It’s sort of winter time for Internet companies in terms of getting finance,” said Q.D. Wang, chief executive of Internet mobile startup Datou.

In the first quarter of 2012, venture capital firms invested just $138.5 million into China’s Internet sector, an 84 percent fall from the $866.5 million invested in the year earlier period, Thomson Reuters data shows.

Starved of funds, scores of startups face an uncertain future. Many are turning to unusual financing sources.

SHANGHAI/HONG KONG, April 23 (Reuters) – China’s hot Internet sector is facing a problem it is unaccustomed to: a lack of money.

The world’s largest Internet market, with nearly half a billion users, gave birth to some of the world’s most vibrant Internet firms, such as Baidu Inc and Tencent Holdings . Venture capitalists bankrolled them, making knockout returns after the firms’ successful U.S. listings in the mid- to latter half of the previous decade.

But a slew of accounting scandals and fears that the corporate structures used by China’s Internet firms could face greater scrutiny from Chinese authorities have spooked U.S. investors in the past year, dulling their appetite for initial public offerings.

With IPO exits blocked, venture capital funds have dried up.

“It’s sort of winter time for Internet companies in terms of getting finance,” said Q.D. Wang, chief executive of Internet mobile startup Datou.

In the first quarter of 2012, venture capital firms invested just $138.5 million into China’s Internet sector, an 84 percent fall from the $866.5 million invested in the year earlier period, Thomson Reuters data shows.

Starved of funds, scores of startups face an uncertain future. Many are turning to unusual financing sources.

SHANGHAI, March 30 (Reuters) – It is a marriage made in heaven for shopping addicts. Social shopping, the merger of social networking and e-commerce which has hooked millions of users in the United States, has now captured the attention of China’s Internet giant.

Alibaba Group’s social shopping platform Fa Xian (), launched on a testing basis four weeks ago, is already luring 60,000 viewers a day.

“Over the long run, social commerce in China has the potential to be bigger than the United States,” said Hans Tung, managing director of venture capital firm Qiming Ventures.

Social shopping websites allow users to post photos of items on virtual pin boards, which others can comment on. Some sites allow users to purchase some of the items by clicking on the photos.

The business model originated in the United States in the mid 2000s when firms such as Kaboodle first set up shops. Others have emerged since then, including Fab.com and most recently Pinterest.

In China, the home of world’s largest Internet population with nearly half a billion users, social shopping websites, such as Mogujie, LinkChic and Xinxian, have been launched over the past year.

Alibaba, 40 percent owned by Yahoo Inc, is looking to incorporate these rivals into Fa Xian, which means discovery in Chinese. Unlike other U.S. social shopping websites, all the items on Fa Xian can be purchased through its two e-commerce websites, Taobao Mall and Taobao Marketplace.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – New real-identity rules to be imposed on China’s Weibo are likely to make the country’s most popular microblogging platform more alluring to advertisers, as Sina Corp seeks to start generating revenue from its product later this year.

On Friday, Beijing-based users on Weibo will need to be registered with their real identities in order to post online. Other major cities, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, are expected to adopt similar rules.

Analysts said the move was unlikely to cause a steep drop in user engagement and may actually see an up tick in advertiser interest, as the identity rules would weed out spam accounts and give Sina precious user information that could turn the platform into a money-spinning crown jewel.

“It’s not going to have a major impact on user engagement because there’s nothing else that does what this platform does in real time,” said Shanghai-based marketing consultant T.R. Harrington.

“From an advertising targeting perspective Weibo has the potential to become much more valuable,” Harrington said.

Weibo, dubbed the Twitter of China, allows users to post short messages, gather fans and follow other users. It is valued up to $4.5 billion by analysts, compared to Twitter that is valued at $8 billion based on its latest round of financing.

China’s online advertising market rose 57 percent to 51.2 billion yuan ($8.1 billion) last year, surpassing traditional newspaper advertising, according to Beijing-based consultancy iResearch.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Some Chinese Internet users have this week been able to access blocked websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, relishing the newfound freedom although the reason for the breach in China’s Great Firewall of censorship was a mystery.

China blocks most foreign social networking sites (SNS) out of fear that unfettered access would lead to instability. Chinese SNS firms have filled the void by offering similar products that censor topics the government may find sensitive.

“I can suddenly access YouTube! No need to breach the firewall!” Weibo user Arvin Xie posted on Tuesday.

Weibo is a microblogging platform, similar to Twitter, that allows users to post short messages and follow other users.

Internet users including students on university campuses reported that they were able to access YouTube, Facebook and Twitter on their mobile phones and desktops in the afternoon and evening on Monday and Tuesday.

“I used Facebook for the first time yesterday,” Zhang Wenjin, 23, a student at Shanghai’s prestigious Jiao Tong University told Reuters on Tuesday.

“I went on and took a look. I’m sure there were suddenly a lot of people who signed up on Facebook yesterday,” Zhang said, adding that she had also signed up for an account.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – France’s Accor SA, Europe’s largest hotelier, aims to open 100 hotels in China in the next 2-3 years, the chairman and chief operating officer of Accor Asia Pacific, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Michael Issenberg was speaking on the sidelines of a news conference in Shanghai, where the company launched a customised Mercure brand for the Chinese market.

With operations in 90 countries ranging from the luxury Sofitel chain to budget Ibis and Motel 6 brands, Accor hopes the new initiative will mean an increased share of a highly competitive market.

Issenberg added that the company had opened 66 hotels in China last year and was targeting a similar number this year.

The customised Mercure brand will be called Grand Mercure — “Mei Jue” in Mandarin. The hotels will cater to upscale domestic travellers, offering services such as morning Tai Chi exercises and 24-hour rice porridge.

Accor (ACCP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to expand the Grand Mercure network to 65 hotels across tier-one to tier-three cities by 2015, from 10 currently. The firm said in a statement that it has already secured commitments for 10 hotels.

“The Grand Mercure brand provides Accor with a fresh platform for organic upscale expansion throughout the country,” Accor Greater China Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Sam Shih said in a statement.

Feb 27 (Reuters) – China’s Sina Corp said government regulations forcing users of its Weibo microblogging platform to register their real names, coupled with new investments for the popular site, will hurt its profits for this year.

Sina posted a quarterly profit on Monday in line with analyst estimates, but forecast a disappointing first quarter, sending its shares down 4 percent in after-market trade.

Weibo, like Twitter in the United States, is a platform that allows users to post messages of up to 140 characters. Investors have been bullish on the platform’s prospects, but the government requirement forcing new and existing users to register their real identities has dampened the outlook.

Sina aims to monetise Weibo this year by selling ads and employing other fee-based services, but the new regulations could result in fewer users and thus a less attractive venue for ad sales.

“We believe the requirement to convert existing users into verified users…will have a negative impact on user activity in the short term,” Charles Chao, chief executive of Sina, said on an earnings call with reporters and analysts.

Chao said the regulations had already affected potential new users. Of the total attempting to pass the verification process since December, only 55-60 percent succeeded. He did not disclose the specific numbers involved. The platform currently has about 200 million users, according to company figures.

“These people will still be users, but in a very dramatic scenario, they will not be able to speak, meaning they won’t be able to post messages,” Chao said.