Corporate China | Weibo: TCL dotes on HTC, LinkedIn's Shen warns of bubble

Reading Time:3 minutes

TCL's Li Dongsheng hints at a possible tie-up with struggling former Taiwanese smartphone giant HTC. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 11:08am, 6 Oct 2014Updated: 9:15pm, 6 Oct 2014

The microblogging realm has been relatively quiet this past week as Chinese tech executives enjoy the long October 1 holiday. Still, a few couldn't completely stay away from their online accounts, led by TCL's (Shenzhen: 000100) thoughtful Chairman Li Dongsheng who hinted at a possible tie-up with struggling former Taiwanese smartphone giant HTC (Taipei: 2498).

Meantime, LinkedIn's (NYSE: LNKD) China chief Derek Shen commented on the current overheated investment environment in China's Internet, reinforcing a view I've been stating for a while now. Finally there was Lenovo (0992.HK) CEO Yang Yuanqing, who let his deputies do the talking on his behalf as he donated a portion of his annual bonus to rank-and-file company employees in a goodwill gesture for the third straight year.

Let's begin our weekly microblogging round-up with TCL's Li Dongsheng, who always impresses me as one of China's more thoughtful tech executives, especially when compared with others who use their microblogs mostly for self promotion. Li often talks about his own personal development on his microblog, and even hints occasionally at things his company is doing behind the scenes such as its Internet TV tie-up a year ago with leading search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU).

In this case, Li paid a nice tribute to Cher Wang, founder and chairman of Taiwan's HTC. For those who don't follow this company closely, HTC was one of the earliest companies to recognize the importance of smartphones. It briefly enjoyed a reputation as one of the world's top brands, before taking a sudden sharp downturn about two years ago.

In a bid to right the company, Wang returned to a more operational role at HTC last year, which was the subject of Li's microblog post. The post itself was mostly puffery, lauding Wang for her early accomplishments. He even compared her return to HTC to the much better known return of Steve Jobs to Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) in 1997, some 12 years after he was forced out of the company he co-founded.

That comparison may be a bit exaggerated, but what caught my attention was Li's comment towards the end of his post where he expressed his hope that HTC could complete a comeback. In expressing that hope, he added that companies from both sides of the Taiwan Strait could join hands to pose a serious smartphone challenge to current leaders Apple and Samsung (Seoul: 005930). That last reference seems to imply that a tie-up could be brewing between HTC and TCL, creating a potentially potent partnership to challenge the current crowded field of companies vying to challenge Apple and Samsung.