Friday, May 18, 2012

The Facebook Effect on China's Renren

It was little more than a year ago that China’s Facebook, Renren, went public on the NYSE. Now the spotlight is on Facebook and its debut on NASDAQ.

There’s debate over Renren really is a China Facebook, like Baidu is a Chinese version of Google. Certainly there is a world of difference. Facebook has not entered China while Baidu competed with Google for several years in China.

Renren is the top social networking site in China, while Facebook is a leader is just about every market globally except China. With a market as huge as China’s and with so much market potential for games, social networking and social commerce, Renren’s turf is China.

Facebook likely faces a challenging time if it does enter China. Keep reading this post at Forbes.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Startup Asia Deals Count in 1/4 of Forbes Midas List of 100 Top 100 VCs

What a difference it makes to have China and India included in the Forbes’ Midas List 2012.

Of the top 100 venture capitalists who scored in this annual ranking, 12 who have funded startups in China are new on the 2012 list from last year. Two VCs active in India emerged on the 2012 ranks.

DCM and IDG Accel were among those firms that excelled with the expansion of China to the mix in 2012. The inclusion of India this year propelled Accel India and Mayfield Fund in the 2012 rankings.

The list reflects the importance of China and India as emerging hotspots of technology innovation, as well it should! China and India accounted for 17% of the total venture capital invested in 2011. Overall, the 2012 rankings highlight the growing range of dealmakers globally who have become active in China and India over the past five years.

What the dealmaker rankings also factor in is the fast increase among their funded Chinese startups that have gone public in the U.S. over the past five years. Prominent on the list of the VCs portfolios are recently listed Chinese companies Renren, Tudou, HiSoft Tech, Dangdang, Bitauto, VanceInfo and Qihoo 360.

China’s Facebook-plus site, Renren, appears on four of the VCs’ portfolio of deals. Other Chinese deals that repeat on the deal list are outsourcing company HiSoft Tech and video sharing site Tudou. From India, travel sevice MakeMyTrip was notable among the deals made by the top-100 ranked VCs.

Perhaps next year’s list can take into account the post-IPO performance of the deals! Many of those recently listed companies noted above are trading below their IPO price.

Privately held companies in China and India mattered in the rankings of the top 100 as well. From China, among the prominently cited deals are GroupOn-like Lashou and gaming portal Duowan. From India, medical device maker Perfint and online retailer Flipkart from India are notably recognized.

Here’s my tally of the 12 VC newcomers in 2012 doing deals in China, in order of their rank.
See Startup Asia tally at Forbes.