Mobile phone maker TCL Communication Technology reported a 50% growth in net profit to HKD14 million for the nine months to September. The result marked a major recovery from a loss in the third quarter of last year of HKD90.85 million to a profit of HKD223 million in the three months to September this year. The company adopted a “step-up strategy” to migrate its product lines from basic “feature phones” to smartphones. Chief Executive Guo Aiping said the transition had been successfully negotiated and the sales volume of its smartphones and smart devices had surged 136% year-on-year to 9.9 million units in the first nine months of this year. Sales volume of handsets and other products dropped 17% to 3.7 million units, pulling revenue down by 28% to HKD1 billion. In order to strengthen its competitiveness, Guo said the company needed to shift new products on to the market in the shortest time possible. “The process from ideas to product launch should take no more than four to five months,” he said, adding that the company would continue to invest heavily in research and development (R&D). Television maker TCL Multimedia Technology, a sister company, reported a drop in gross profit of 4.4% year-on-year to HKD4.1 billion for the first nine months. Net profit rose 82.4% to HKD112 million.

An e-commerce platform is to be launched in the Shanghai free trade zone (FTZ) to allow consumers to buy foreign brands at lower prices. The website, buyeasi.com, operated by payment service provider Easipay and supported by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), is now running on a trial basis pending Customs approval. It is cooperating with usashopcn.com, a purchasing agent for foreign brands. The website will focus on middle and high-end products such as clothing, accessories, infant formula, consumer electronic products, cosmetics and bags. The platform is expected to encourage more foreign brands to open online outlets. Foreign brands will be able to set up bonded warehouses in the zone to reduce tax payments and facilitate transport. The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone was inaugurated on September 29. The zone covers almost 29 square kilometers in the city’s Pudong New Area.

Tencent and Alibaba have recently been waging a battle for consumers using vending machines at Beijing Subway stations. Both internet firms have rolled out “smart” vending machines that support their respective mobile e-commerce applications, which subscribers can download on their smartphones and use to buy drinks, snacks and other goods from the machines. Shenzhen-based Tencent teamed with Ubox, a vending-machine manufacturer, to install about 300 drinks machines across the Beijing Subway network and support transactions by subscribers to the WeChat social mobile-messaging app. Mobile payments via WeChat, which has more than 300 million active monthly users, are based on the app’s capability to scan the QR codes on the vending machine, and the transaction is then charged to the bank account integrated with the WeChat account. Alibaba, however, was the first to adopt apps-friendly vending machines and intends to cover more than 90% of China’s vending-machine market. The group’s affiliate, Alipay, agreed in April to cooperate with 11 vending-machine makers, including Ubox, to integrate its mobile payment solution on an initial batch of about 100 machines this year in Beijing Subway stations and various school campuses.

The online payment affiliate of e-commerce company Alibaba is taking control of Tianhong Asset Management to accelerate its push into online financial services. Tianhong shareholder Inner Mongolia Junzheng Energy & Chemical Industry said the investment of CNY1.18 billion gives Zhejiang Alibaba E-Commerce, the parent company of online payment company Alipay, 51% of Tianhong. Alipay and Tianhong launched a new fund and payment platform – Yu E Bao – in June to help Alipay customers convert spare cash into a money market fund holding. In its first 18 days, the fund attracted more than 2.5 million customers and raised CNY6.6 billion, according to Tianhong, and is expected to be one of the most successful mutual funds in the country this year. Alibaba, which is expected to file for an initial public offering (IPO) in New York next year that could value the company at more than USD100 billion, has been leading the drive by domestic internet companies into highly regulated financial services. “Tianhong and Alibaba are mutually complementary,” said Ding Xuemei, Spokeswoman for Tianhong. “Alibaba is very experienced in the internet and we are very experienced in investment management. We partner up for a better prospect in internet finance.” Alibaba bought its Tianhong stake through a fund-raising exercise that saw Tianhong’s registered capital more than double to CNY514.3 million from CNY180 million. Alipay is China’s biggest third-party payment platform, providing payment solutions to 460,000 merchants and with 800 million registered accounts. Customers can invest as little as CNY1 in the Yu E Bao service and can withdraw their money and return it to their Alipay accounts at any time, the South China Morning Post reports.

Alibaba Group has bought a USD200 million stake in fledgling U.S. retail website ShopRunner in one of the largest U.S. investments made by the Chinese e-commerce firm. ShopRunner is a three-year-old retail startup backed by eBay and run by former Yahoo Chief Executive Scott Thompson. The Wall Street Journal reported that eBay sold its 30% stake to Alibaba and other unspecified investors, which valued ShopRunner at about USD600 million. “The U.S. market in the long run is very interesting to us. Coming into this market is about learning about American consumers and how the market operates,”said Joe Tsai, Alibaba’s Executive Vice Chairman in an interview. Alibaba has decided to forego listing in Hong Kong, and is not aiming to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S. ShopRunner was founded in 2010 and offers free two-day shipping of goods by major brands from Calvin Klein to health products retailer GNC. It hopes to make inroads into the business of much larger rival Amazon.com with features such as free shipping on returns and unlimited two-day shipping.