How Much is SINA Worth?

It is an understatement to say that the future of SINA lies with Weibo.

SINA, one of the largest media portals in China, is transforming itself into a Twitter-Facebook hybrid. Starting out as a Chinese version of Twitter, Weibo is on its way to becoming the Chinese version of Facebook. Sina Weibo has taken China by storm, gaining 250 million registered users in 2 years and showing no sign of slowdown. This is compared to 485 million internet users in China and 800 million users of Facebook.

With all the buzz, shares of SINA, however, are not considered bargains by traditional valuation standards. SINA, on February 2, 2012, was valued at $4.86 billion in the US stock market, with a forward PE ratio over 60. Has its shares price gone ahead of itself or this is just the beginning of a super growth stock?

In other words, how much is Weibo worth and how much has been priced in? I am not here to throw a single number out but instead I would like to find out, by a reasonable stretch of imagination, whether there is any room to the upside from its current market valuation.
Valuation 1: Taking away Sina's value as a media portal , how much is it worth?

As of February 1, 2012, the market capitalizaion of SOHU was $2.28 billion versus SINA at $4.86 billion. The estimated revenue of for SOHU in 2011 was $850.33 million versus $464.99 million. That leaves a Price-Sale ratio of 2.68 for SOHU. With the same multiple, SINA should have a market cap of $1.25 billion. That means SINA weibo reaps a market cap of $3.61 billion. Can it be worth that much? Since SINA weibo currently has no revenue, I will use a social media benchmark for a reasonable multiple.

Valuation 2: Comparisons with American peers, Facebook and Twitter

Both Facebook and Twitter are not yet publicly traded, thus rendering their valuations a guessing game. A recent private investment indicated Twitter valued between $8 and 10 billion while recent trading on SharesPost showed a value between $6.8 and 7.7 billion. Facebook, is valued between $70-$100 billion depending on the sources. Given an estimate of 2011 revenue of $140 milllion  for Twitter and $4 billion for Facebook, the price-to-sales multiple of Twitter is much higher than Facebook. Leaning to the conservative side, I use only Facebook as the benchmark. Considering the prejudice against Chinese concepts just very recently, 50% discount of Facebook's multiple for is assumed forWeibo.

As you can see from Figure 1 (click on the image to a larger view), assuming SINA without revenue from businesses other than Weibo and ignoring discounting, Weibo will have to reap a revenue of $600 million,$500 million, $400 million for a multiple of 7.5, 10 and 12.5 respectively to justfify any upside in market capitalization. Are these possible? Let's look into Weibo's monetization.

What could be the revenue?
The biggest bang of Weibo monetization will come from its experimental business platform similar to Facebook page that caters to businesses' connecting directly with users and a spread of words among users. According to SIG analyst, Chunming Zhao's calculation, annual revenue of Weibo when the business platform is executed will be as much as $1 billion. This calculation assumes Weibo gets 150,000 business users (half of what Baidu currently has) and 40,000 RMB per customer (Baidu's average revenue per user (ARPU)). This is used as the upper limit of revenues in the second valuation.

Conclusion
From the above exercise, it is not totally unreasonable for SINA to have more upside, and possibly a big one if its plan to monetize Weibo follows the path of Baidu, Twitter or Facebook. Of course, skeptics could say it is a big “if"

Disclaimer: I have no position of SINA in my personal account as of 2/4/2012. However, I may have distributed the information to friends, family and affiliates prior to the post. My friends, family and business affiliates may have positions in stocks I mention.

3 cases for DANG

Coined as "Amazon of China", the Chinese B2C company, Dangdang (DANG) that was barely $5 at the start of the year, soared by 70% to as high as $8.50 before it retreated to $7+ toward the end of January. There were many non-DANG factors that contributed to a great run, namely, the revival of Chinese-concept stocks that were beaten up in most of 2011, the return of chasing "growth" as governments print money and European debt crisis was tentatively brushed aside, and last but not least, the euphoria surrounding the historic IPO of social media giant, Facebook. All these buzzes aside, DANG has some merits to itself. These may not merit a 70% run in less than a month but they may merit a much higher valuation in 12 months than what it is now.

1. Significant Upside of the Ecommerce market in China

The growth of the ecommerce market is of lightning speed. The ecommerce market in China is expected to reach 2 trillion RMB ($310 billion ) by 2015. A rising tide lifts all boats. Currently DANG’s market share is somewhere between 4-9% (depending on the source of data). Take the worst case scenario that Dang does not grow the market share at all from now on . The market share even goes down some to 3%, it gives a sale of $9 billion, about 18 times more than DANG’s revenue in 2011.

DANG stands to benefit and grow together with such a big wave in China’s ecommerce even if it performs somewhere between mediocrity and average.

2. The Peer Effect-Jingdong's IPO

One of the largest B2C player in China, Jingdong (360buy.com) IPO is expected to be above $ 5 billion. Jingdong's market share of ecommerce is somewhere between 18 to 32% depending on the classification and source. Its recent private equity deals indicated that the company was valued at $10 billion. DANG’s current market cap is $579 million. If it doubles, it will still be far below Jingdong.

There are two possible effects on DANG after Jingdong’s IPO: 1. Jingdong’s high profile IPO, if successful, is likely to remind investors of the great potential of China’s ecommerce market again 2. Jingdong’s IPO is likely to take investors away from DANG as Jingdong’s market share in Ecommerce far exceeds that of DANG. With only a few Chinese B2C ADR listed in the US exchange and the current low stock price of DANG, I am leaning toward the first possibility.

3. Product Diversity and Logistic Improvement
One of the biggest obstacles facing Chinese E-commerce is the lacking in logistic and distribution system. E-commerce players find it hard pressed to guaratee quality and consistency in delivery. Customers are often frustrated with the quality and consistency of such service. B2B giant, Alibaba, the parent company of Taobao and B2C leader, Jingdong are both devoted to massive amount of capital in the improvement of logistic system.

DANG is focused on expanding product diversity and improving logistic system, e-book, baby, beauty, home décor,etc. With its dominance in book market, it can leverage its knowledge of reading pattern of its customer base and direct customers to products that may be of their interests. Of no lesser importance is a large amount of cash at hand . DANG has $246 million to put into the above implementation.

Caveat
The recent rally of Chinese concepts, especially internet related stocks, has put DANG at risk of an immediate pull back (which may have already taken place to a large extent) but it is definitely a stock worth a place in your watch list in 2012.



Disclaimer: I am long  DANG in my personal account as of 2/2/2012. However, I may have distributed the information to friends, family and affiliates prior to the post. My friends, family and business affiliates may have positions in stocks I mention.

The Demise of Cable Television?

From "Cable Subscribers Flee, But Is Internet to Blame?"

"..........TV subscribers are ditching their cable companies at an ever faster rate in the past few months, and many of them aren't signing up with a satellite or phone competitor instead.


Their willingness to simply go without pay television could be a sign that Internet TV services such as Netflix and Hulu are finally starting to entice people to cancel cable, though company executives say the weak economy and housing market are to blame............

Third-quarter results reported this week by major cable and satellite TV companies show major losses, but don't settle the question of what's causing them.


If "cord-cutting" in favor of Internet video is finally taking hold, that has wide-ranging implications. Consumers who use the Internet to get their movies and TV shows bypass not just the cable companies, but the cable networks that produce the content. The move could have the same disruptive effect on the TV and movie industries as digital downloads have already had on music........................................"

Is Internet to Blame?

This trend coincides with a very sluggish economy, thus rendering it difficult to pinpoint the cause of "cord cutting". Are tv subscribers turning to internet video streaming or they simply can't afford cable TV bills these days.

Time Warner Cable Inc.'s chief operating officer, Landel Hobbs, said the company does not see evidence of people dropping cable in favor of the Internet. First, the biggest subscriber losses have been occuring for people who do not already have high-speed internet without which online video streaming is impossible. They either have switched to satellite or giving up paid TV channels. Second, college students who are viewed as more high-tech savvy, and more inclined to switch to online TV, have not shown a drop rate that is out of line with previous years.

Meanwhile, there are a couple of hurdles to overcome before online video streaming can take over cable TV/satellite like cell phones taking over landlines 5-6 years ago. First, hooking up computer or game console or other devices to get internet video content streaming as easily as a switch of a button on the remote control may seem like a piece of cake to high-tech savvy people but not others. Second, or more importantly, TV fans find content on internet very limited. For example, there is not a lot of life sports on TV yet. Content providers like Walt Disney and Newscorp currently make billions of dollar from cable TV. 6 content providers carry 85% of the content viewed by the nation. They are unlikely to give it up easily to internet providers who are unlikely to pay the same amount of fees. There will be a battle between content provider and internet providers. Until they iron out these differences, cable TV may catch a breather.

However, I think this will not be a long breather.

Related tickers: CVC, CMCSA, DIS, NWC,NFLX