Jack Ma posted that Alibaba has returned to a healthy growth track. Blizzard's World of Warcraft and other games will return to the Chinese mainland market. OpenAI and Meta are about to release new AI models. In the Kobayashi pharmaceutical incident, most people with impaired health developed Fanconi syndrome. Delta Air Lines Announces Results. On April 10, Jack Ma published a post entitled "To Reform and Innovation" on Alibaba's intranet, highly affirming the courage of the new management composed of Tsai Chongxin and Wu Yongming, saying that Alibaba has returned to the track of healthy growth and supports continued reform. It is reported that this is the first time in five years that Ma Yun has shared his thoughts on the company's reform and innovation and future prospects after retirement. Ma Yun believes in the article that the core change of Ali in the past year is not to catch up with KPIs, but to recognize itself and return to the track of customer value. By operating on the disease of large companies, Ali has returned to the supremacy of efficiency and the market, and has become simple and agile.
JD.com officially announced on April 10 that it will invest one billion cash and one billion traffic as rewards to attract more original creators and high-quality content institutions to settle in. On the one hand, subsidies will be provided to experts in more than 20 creative fields such as digital 3C, home appliances, mother and child, pets, fashion, sports, beauty and personal care, health, and car products. On the other hand, high-quality original videos will get more exposure opportunities, not only through the algorithm weighting, providing subsidies for fixed traffic coupons, but also through the evaluation and outfit TAB in the channel, and adding evaluation and dressing floors in the product detail page to bring more traffic to high-quality content.
Blizzard Entertainment will partner with Netease to bring its best-selling games back to Chinese mainland this summer, extending a partnership that ended in January. Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft Gaming and NetEase said in a statement Wednesday that the updated game publishing agreement will include Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, Hearthstone and other games. Microsoft Gaming and NetEase also said they would also consider bringing new NetEase games to Xbox and beyond.
OpenAI and Meta are about to release new AI models, which they say will have the ability to reason and plan, which is a key step in achieving superhuman cognition in machines. OpenAI and Meta executives say they are preparing to launch the next version of their large language model. These systems power generative AI applications like ChatGPT. Companies such as Google, Anthropic, and Cohere will also release new large language models this year.
Google's portfolio of self-developed chips has grown even further, with a new chip that can handle a wide range of tasks, from YouTube ads to big data analytics, to combat the rising cost of AI. The new product, called Axion, is a chip commonly used in large data centers. Google has been developing new computing resources for more than a decade, starting with the earliest AI-specific chips, and this release of chips is one of them. Google's development of its own chips is expected to reduce its dependence on external suppliers and form competitive relationships with long-term partners such as Intel and Nvidia.
According to IDC data, after two years of decline, the global traditional PC market has rebounded in the first quarter of 2024, with a total of 59.8 million units shipped, a year-on-year increase of 1.5%. Lenovo shipped 13.7 million units, with a market share of 23%, an increase of 7.8% compared to the same period last year. HP shipped 12 million units, with a market share of 20.1%, a year-on-year increase of 0.2%. Dell shipped 9.3 million units, with a market share of 15.5%, down 2.2% year-on-year. Apple shipped 4.8 million units, with a market share of 8.1%, a year-on-year increase of 14.6%. Acer shipped 3.7 million units, with a market share of 6.2%, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%. ASUS shipped 3.6 million units, with a market share of 6.1%, down 4.5% year-on-year.
Panasonic announced on April 9 its business plan for its housing and construction space business, which combines air conditioning equipment and housing equipment in China. In April, a new specialized department will be established, and a new product for high-end residential buildings will be launched. As part of its efforts to strengthen its housing and construction space business, Panasonic established a new organization in April to provide one-stop services from consulting to space design, equipment sales and construction, and after-sales services. The company will also expand its portfolio with new products. This is a system product with six effects, including room temperature regulation, humidity regulation, and sterilization, and a new product that supports floor heating was launched in April. New products related to lighting will also be released at the end of this fiscal year.
BMW Group delivered 594671 vehicles worldwide in the first quarter of 2024, up 1.1 percent year-on-year, the BMW Group said on Wednesday. Among them, the sales of pure electric vehicles were 82,700, a year-on-year increase of 27.9%. The company said it expects deliveries of battery electric vehicles and premium vehicles to drive a slight increase in deliveries for the full year of 2024.
VOLVO CAR ANNOUNCED ITS SALES IN MARCH 2024, WITH A TOTAL OF 78,970 NEW CARS SOLD WORLDWIDE, A YEAR-ON-YEAR INCREASE OF 25%, AND NEW ENERGY VEHICLES REACHING 33,558, A YEAR-ON-YEAR INCREASE OF 24%, ACCOUNTING FOR 42% OF THE WORLD'S TOTAL SALES, AND A TOTAL OF 182687 GLOBAL SALES IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF THIS YEAR, A YEAR-ON-YEAR INCREASE OF 12%. Among them, sales in the Chinese market reached 14,005 units in March, a year-on-year increase of 21%, but only 1,039 new energy vehicles were sold, a year-on-year decrease of 28%. In terms of specific models, the XC60 remains the best-selling model in the world, with 22,402 units sold in March, 20,557 units of the XC40 and 10,826 units of the XC90.
China's retail sales of passenger cars rose 6.0% year-on-year to 1.687 million units in March, the Federation said on Tuesday. Passenger car sales surged 53% month-on-month in March, with consumer demand recovering after the Chinese New Year in February. BYD held on to its title as the EV sales champion in March, selling 301,631 units. Tesla came in second. Tesla China delivered 89,064 vehicles in March, which were produced at its Shanghai factory, which rebounded from February. Retail sales of new energy vehicles, including electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, increased by 29.5% to 709,000 units nationwide.
Xpeng Motors announced on April 10 that it will expand its business scope through cooperation with Sime Darby Motors' dealers. Through this partnership, Xpeng will provide consumers in the Hong Kong market with the latest smart electric vehicles, as well as comprehensive guidance through the brand's showroom, after-sales support and guidance through all stages of the purchase process, with deliveries expected to begin in the third quarter of this year. Xpeng Motors also announced its plans in the Macau market to cooperate with the new Cons Heng Group, and is expected to start deliveries of left-hand drive models in May this year.
Spain is expected to become Chery Automobile's first production base in Europe. Chery Automobile plans to establish a production base in Barcelona, Spain, and will restart its Nissan plant in Spain to restore 1,600 local jobs.
Toyota Motor said it is partnering with China Minmetals Group to recycle used on-board batteries for electric vehicles such as electric vehicles (EVs). Toyota will vigorously develop its battery recycling business in China and play a useful role in securing automotive battery materials. The joint venture will be established with a stake in Toyota Motor China Investment Co., Ltd., two subsidiaries of Minmetals Group, and Meihe Sangyo in China.
Boeing delivered 24 737 MAX jets in March, up from 18 in February. By the end of the first quarter of this year, Boeing had delivered 67 737s, down from 112 in the same period last year. This is the lowest number since 63 aircraft were delivered in the first three months of 2021. It was the aircraftmaker's lowest first quarter since the pandemic. Of the 737 aircraft delivered this year, 17 were delivered to China. Boeing said it expects to ramp up production in the second half of this year. As of the end of March, Boeing had a backlog of 5,668 aircraft, most of which were 737s.
KKR has a plan to scale its core business, with the goal of reaching at least $1 trillion in assets under management over five years. The company intends to achieve this milestone on top of its existing asset management, insurance and strategic holding divisions. KKR has moved beyond its private equity roots to become an alternative asset management giant with strategies including acquisitions, credit, infrastructure, real estate, and insurance. At the end of last year, the company had $553 billion in assets under management. KKR shares are up 21% this year, outperforming publicly traded companies such as Blackstone, Apollo Global Management and The Carlyle Group.
Faced with a slowdown in business demand, consulting giant McKinsey & Company began laying off about 360 employees. The layoffs are global in nature and will affect a wide range of departments, including design, data engineering, cloud computing and software. It is expected to affect about 3 per cent of the 12,000 people who are considered professionals or have technical expertise to work with the company's traditional consultants. Traditional consultants will not be affected by this layoff. McKinsey employs more than 45,000 people in 130 cities around the world. Firms such as Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers have recently had to lay off staff as more clients put longer-term investment plans on hold after a hiring boom sparked by the pandemic boom in the consulting industry.
GE Vernova's LM Windpower business has launched a layoff plan that will involve 1,000 jobs, mainly in functions around the world. LM Wind Energy is the world's largest manufacturer of wind turbine blades. Since 1978, more than 263,000 wind turbine blades have been installed, accounting for about one-fifth of the global market share. At the end of last year, it employed 11,000 people worldwide. LM Wind Energy has production, sales and service layout in 11 countries including Denmark, Canada and China, and its 12 production bases are located in 9 countries around the world.
Philips has entered into a definitive agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding ventilator-related consent orders. Under the agreement, Philips Respironics ventilators will continue to prioritize the completion of repairs to sleep and respiratory care devices voluntarily recalled in 2021. In June 2021, Philips announced a recall of millions of sleep apnea and ventilators, saying patients could inhale a type of foam particles and gases that degrade and release harmful and potentially carcinogenic foam when using these devices. Since then, in 2021 alone, Philips has recalled 5.2 million respiratory devices worldwide, much higher than the initial estimate of 3 million to 4 million units.
The Japanese Nephrology Society said on the 9th that a survey of some consumers whose health was impaired after taking Japan's Kobayashi Pharmaceutical (Kobayashi Pharmaceutical) problem health care products showed that most of them had symptoms of Fanconi syndrome, and three-quarters of the patients showed improvement in symptoms after stopping taking them. As of the 4th of this month, the society conducted a survey of 95 consumers whose health was impaired after taking Kobayashi Pharmaceutical's supplements containing red yeast rice. More than half of these patients present at the time of initial diagnosis because of symptoms such as fatigue and abnormal urination, which are typical symptoms of Fanconi syndrome.
Bona Film Group and IMAX Corporation, IMAX China announced on April 10 that they will further expand their cooperation to build three new IMAX laser theaters in China. The new cinema is expected to open to the public from 2026. Bona Film Group and IMAX have been working closely since 2012, and the agreement will bring the total number of IMAX theaters under Bona Film Group to 36. The three new IMAX theaters in China will be equipped with IMAX laser systems to present the best and most cutting-edge IMAX viewing experience.
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced a strategic partnership with China UnionPay to allow 12 hotels to complete hotel reservations through direct sales channels such as the IHG app and mini program with UnionPay credit cards issued in China. This marks IHG becoming the first international hotel group in Greater China to accept UnionPay cardless pre-authorised bookings for official online bookings.
Financial Reporting Information
Delta Air Lines announces first-quarter 2024 results. Total revenue for the quarter was $13.748 billion, compared to $12.759 billion in the same period last year, an increase of 8% year-on-year. Operating profit for the quarter was $614 million, compared to an operating loss of $277 million in the year-ago quarter. Net income for the quarter was $37 million, compared to a net loss of $363 million in the year-ago quarter.
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