Author: stlplace

Categories
China

Apply US visa in Shanghai

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The saga of applying the US visa. Warning: for entertainment purpose only. I am not providing any advice for visa application.

Last Friday I went to the US consulate Shanghai for the worker visa, with my wife applying H-4. Ten years have passed since I first applied the student visa. A lot things have changed: namely Internet and call center. These technologies have been integrated into the visa application process, such as the calling card (issued by China Citic Bank) and the appointment system. Here is how it works: the applicant buys the calling card from the bank, call the 400 number (like 800 # in the US), talk to the representative and schedule the appointment. We got our appointment that way. But when we reached the West Nanjing Rd. at 12:45 PM, wait for our 1:15 PM appointment, we found a long line already being formed. Later we learned the appointment system is used for the consulate to estimate how many people will show up, in reality the applicants still show up in early morning or afternoon, waiting the line. Because most everyone (except me, and few others) is so eager to visit US 🙂

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Categories
Business China

Price war leaves bad taste to loyal customers

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Last week one of the biggest news in consumer electronics arena is Apple decided to cut the iPhone price. Consider Apple just started shipping iPhone in late June, this move is a blow to its most loyal customers (early adopters). Apple quickly responded to the angry customers by offering $100 credit (source: Apple.com).

From my own experience, US car makers do those kind of price cut all the time. They carry out price wars mainly in two ways: rebate and/or low interest loan. Sometimes I saw a $8000 rebate on a 20 to 30 k truck or SUV. One side effect of those kind of promotion is the lower residual value of pre-owned cars (trucks), compared to similar model Japanese cars/trucks.

Interestingly, this car price wars are now extended in China, for the good or bad of consumer. On the good side, the new customers can buy the cars on the cheap; on the other hand, the early (loyal) customers paid a premium for the car. This is an Chinese article talking about Hyundai cars. The war is not limited to Korean car makers. It appears to me low end car makers have most to lose; while high end cars such as BMW still have much price power. (Picture below: Hyundai Coupe).

hyundai cars pic

PS, after I wrote the above, I realized there is difference between price cut and price war. But I think there is a strong connection between the two: price cut is the tactics of a price war, e.g., Apple announced a price war against its competitors (Motorola, Palm, RIM etc.) by cutting the iPhone price. Now the competitors will have to respond by cutting their prices if they don’t want to give up market share.

Categories
China Stocks

WuXi Pharma Tech Q2 results

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Here are the results from Yahoo Finance, some highlights:

Second Quarter 2007 Highlights:

— Total net revenues increased 99.3% over the second quarter of 2006 to
US$30.2 million. (1H revenue $64 m, slight decline over Q1 2007?)
— Net income increased 482.1% over the second quarter of 2006 to US$7.1
million.
— Diluted earnings per American Depositary Share (“ADS”) for the second
quarter of 2007 was US$0.11. Diluted earnings per ADS excluding share-
based compensation expenses (non-GAAP) for the second quarter of 2007
was US$0.13.

The stock took a hit last Thursday because the market expected more for its year 2007 outlook. Currently the company expects rev of $128 to 132 million.

On business level, I like Wuxi’s business model and the global outsourcing trend in the pharma R&D. One concern of outsourcing is margin. I’m listening to its Conference Call now, will add comments if I find anything interesting.

Categories
Business Technology

Week in review 09/02-09/08

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1) Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks, talked about competition from McDonald and Dokin Donuts.

Starbucks is not an advertiser. If other companies are going to advertise and promote specialty coffee, Starbucks is going to benefit in the long term,” he said.

2) iPhone price cut and iPod touch launch: Steve Jobs announced Apple will cut 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, discountine to offer 4GB iPhone, and offer an iPod touch, which is “an iPhone without phone capability”. In other words: iPod touch will have touch screen, music and video capability, WiFi, Internet, etc. You can check out latest iPod lineup from apple.com

Categories
Business Fun

iTune at Starbucks

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That’s the new services to be offered by two great companies: Apple and Starbucks. According Seattle Post Intelligence:

Apple’s new wireless iPod music player, iPhone or any laptop computer running iTunes will automatically recognize the iTunes store without a connection fee when customers enter a Starbucks shop that has Wi-Fi access.

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Categories
China Fun

Marriott Sanya Resort

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is very nice. Here is the picture taken from “view lounge”. We are looking at world famous Yang Long Bay. I have not been to many beaches in China; but from what I heard Yang Long Bay has the best beach in China.

IMG_5384

The service of Marriott is 5 star. This tripAdvisor review confirmed my view. They are doing a “family package” promotion at this time, so ask about it when booking. Here is their web page.

Last but not least, a trivia question, do you know how many Marriott Resort(s) are there in China? Marriott Hotels?

Categories
China Stocks

The world is not flat

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At least on Internet front, as I read this post from Wang Jianshuo.

Similar thing can be said about the China stock market, the “open H-share to domestic investors” initiative took a pause this week. The new word is it will start in 2 months; and the minimum balance is 300 k Yuan (vs. previous 100 k Yuan). This news will certainlly boost the domestic A share market, as hot money stays inside China, for the moment. Sersiously I don’t think this policy will have too much effect to Hongkong, as some forward thinking Chinese investors already found their ways in Hongkong and US stock market. Just as I said in previous post, some foreign investors (e.g., Yale university) already found their ways in China A share market.

So, how about we say “the world is not flat; it’s in the process of becoming flat,…”

Categories
Stocks

Week in review 08/26 to 09/01

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I’m back from Sanya. Felt good about the beach and Marriot hotel, I will talk more about the trip later. The following are stuffs I recorded before the trip.

1) Ctrip service is good. Free pick up, delivery; SMS reminder; coupon book including shuttle ride from airport to hotel. By the way, I saw Ctrip’s rep at Sanya airport. She gave me a small tour guide book (free); the book seems very useful. I guess Ctrip is continuing to grow, and create stickness with its customers.

2) Got 2 shares of Vanke at its secondary offering. I bid 500 shares, and the allocate rate is about 0.46%, so I got 2 shares at 31.53 Yuan each. This is smallest stock purchase I ever made. I heard Vanke’s secondary attacted CNY 200 b to bid. Citic Securities slightly beat that with CNY 225 b.

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Categories
Career Stocks

Wall street 101

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The following is copied from the bbs at world famous mit. I pasted it here so people in China can get to it. The article explains the career path of wall street. For ordinary investors who are not going to wall street, this article also explains how finance works…IBD stands for investment banking division.

Let me know what you think.

(author: mywellness) 不少网友对投行以及其它金融行业都表现出了很大的兴趣。不过有不少道听途说的传闻
并不可信。而且很多帖子对一些概念定义比较混乱，不少人甚至对投行干些什么都不甚
清楚。我在这里科普一下，众位大牛不要见笑。这个帖子侧重于介绍金融的一些职业分
工，以及简单的职业道路介绍。

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Categories
Life Stocks

Step back

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The market is full of news these days, and it looks like the drama will be on for a while. But will “tape reading all the time” be helpful for investing? Interestingly I read an abstract of an article on this topic (written by a finance professor at Wash. U.), his conclusion is no. In other words, step back from the market may work out better. But the human nature of “making quick money” can be felt everywhere, especially in China these days. Do we really want to miss the next big thing?

As I was also reading Buffett’s essays (annual letter to his shareholders), I felt I need to learn systematically about finance. I also wanted to learn more about “how to valuate a business”, which is the key to long term investing.

Amid all these, I decided to scale back my blogging frequency a bit, from two posts a day to one post every 3, 4 or 7 days. This hopefull will also help relieve the stress of my hand. I wanted to save key strokes and mouse clicking, so that I can continue to work as programmer for the foreseeble future.

As a side benifit, I may be able to write better quality articles now that I’m scaling back…