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19 minutes ago
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Alibaba Stock Climbs on AI?Powered Smart Glasses Debut
July 28 - Shares of Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) climbed about 2% in early trading Monday after the e?commerce giant unveiled its first AI?powered smart glasses. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 2 Warning Signs with BABA. The Quark AI Glasses will arrive in China by year?end 2025, featuring hardware driven by Alibaba's Qwen large language model and its Quark AI assistant. Users can make hands?free calls, stream music, translate languages in real time and transcribe meetings via a built?in camera. Wearables stand as the next frontier alongside smartphones, and Alibaba aims to embed Quark more deeply into daily life. The glasses integrate with the company's ecosystem, offering navigation, Alipay payments and Taobao price comparisons without a phone. Alibaba faces a direct rivalry with Meta (NASDAQ:META) that partnered with Ray?Ban on its smart eyewear, and Chinese tech giant Xiaomi, whose own AI glasses appeared in early 2022. Hangzhou-based company has not disclosed the pricing or detailed specifications of the product, but the move highlights its aim at targeting consumer-level hardware and AI services. Shareholders will monitor how the new product can enable Alibaba to build a revenue diversification policy and strengthen revenues in its huge technology lineup. Based on the one year price targets offered by 38 analysts, the average target price for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is $149.53 with a high estimate of $176.15 and a low estimate of $102.26. The average target implies a upside of +24.57% from the current price of $120.03. Based on GuruFocus estimates, the estimated GF Value for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd in one year is $111.74, suggesting a downside of -6.91% from the current price of $120.03. Gf value is Gurufocus' estimate of the fair value that the stock should be traded at. It is calculated based on the historical multiples the stock has traded at previously, as well as past business growth and the future estimates of the business' performance. For deeper insights, visit the forecast page. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Chinese consumer complaints show widespread padding of car sales figures
(Reuters) -A tactic used by Chinese automakers and dealers to inflate car sales has grown increasingly common in recent years in response to a bruising price war in the world's largest auto market, a Reuters analysis of consumer complaints has found. Earlier this month, Reuters reported EV brands Neta and Zeekr had arranged for cars to be insured before buyers purchased them, a scheme that effectively inflates sales numbers and gives the appearance the companies were hitting periodic targets. Switch Auto Insurance and Save Today! Affordable Auto Insurance, Customized for You The Insurance Savings You Expect Great Rates and Award-Winning Service But the controversial tactic was not limited to the two companies and was employed elsewhere in the industry, according to a Reuters review of 97 separate consumer complaints published on three widely used Chinese websites. In more than a dozen cases, buyers said they were informed by dealerships that the practice was specifically designed to meet sales targets. The allegations cover some of China's largest domestic and foreign brands by sales volume, including homegrown champion BYD and Toyota, Volkswagen and Buick. The three foreign brands operate their China businesses in partnerships with state-owned giants GAC and SAIC Motor Group. While the earliest complaints date back to 2021, the majority were published this year and last as a price war squeezed an industry crucial to China's export-driven economy. Reuters reviewed complaints posted on a third-party site used for consumer dispute resolutions, and two other similar sites. The platforms require owners to verify their identity and submit proof of their allegations. In most of the cases reviewed, the automakers responded publicly, saying they sought to resolve problems. Reuters was not able to independently verify the complaints or their resolutions. It is not clear what portion of China's car sales were inflated by the insurance scheme. SAIC, which is a China joint venture partner for Volkswagen and Buick-owner General Motors, said it is committed to providing users with high-quality and standardised sales services but did not elaborate. The practice effectively disguises how much inventory automakers actually held, said Yale Zhang, managing director at consultancy Automotive Foresight. "That could lead to a misjudgment of monthly demand within the industry and result in increased production scheduling," Zhang said. CONSUMER ANGER Between 2021 and 2025, 48 separate buyers said on that they purchased new cars only to later discover they were already insured by the dealer. Many of the buyers said they felt deceived by the dealerships, especially when they realised the insurance on their cars was registered in other names. Likewise, there were 26 separate complaints published between 2021 and 2025 on the 315 auto consumer complaint platform, run by the state-owned China Internet Information Center. Another 23 were posted between 2022 and 2025 on Black Cat, a widely used consumer complaint platform run by tech firm Sina. In 14 complaints on the three platforms, buyers of BYD-, Neta-, Toyota-, Buick- and Chevrolet-branded cars said they were told by dealers the practice was aimed at booking sales early to meet targets. One complaint, filed in December against a SAIC GM dealer on alleged the automaker required 60 cars to be insured without buyers to meet sales targets. Another complaint on filed in April alleged a BYD store in Shaanxi told a buyer it had 12 cars insured in a batch to inflate sales last July. Buyers of Li Auto, Changan, FAW-Volkswagen and Geely also reported cars being insured pre-purchase. A Volkswagen Group China spokesperson said it refused to boost sales figures through insurance and that complaints would be investigated. DEALER COMPLAINTS Separately, Reuters identified 29 official media reports from 2020 to 2025 that detailed complaints against dealers of major brands, including BYD and Changan and foreign brands Volkswagen, GM, Toyota, Nissan and Honda, run by their joint ventures with state-owned Chinese automakers. The media outlets, across 15 provinces and cities, are controlled and owned by the regional governments. In nine cases, dealers representing FAW Hongqi, SAIC Roewe, SAIC VW, Dongfeng Nissan, GAC Toyota, GAC Honda and SAIC GM told official media that insuring unsold vehicles was for booking purchases early to meet sales targets. A Honda spokesperson said that GAC Honda prohibits dealers from taking out compulsory insurance before selling new cars and that any dealers found doing so would be dealt with severely. FAW Hongqi said it does not use insurance plans to pre-confirm sales and any such activity was not official company action. GM China said it does not require wholesale vehicles to be insured pre-purchase and that it counts deliveries, not insurance, in its sales reports. BYD, GAC Toyota, Geely, Changan, Nissan and Li Auto did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters also identified five articles published by Chinese courts between March 2023 and March 2025 about consumers taking dealers to court for concealing pre-purchase car insurance. In three of those, the court ruled for the buyers who demanded compensation. Verdicts for the other two were not publicised. 'ZERO MILEAGE' Vehicles booked as sold before reaching buyers are called "zero-mileage used cars" in China. The practice emerged out of the cut-throat competition as the market deals with a years-long price war caused by chronic overcapacity. More than 100 car brands are competing intensely to survive consolidation, deepening pressure to bolster sales and take market share. Analysts and investors that track the industry use two sets of data. Wholesale figures reported by automakers to the industry association show sales from automakers to dealers, while retail data compiled from mandatory traffic insurance registrations show the number of sales to users. Accusations of selling cars with existing insurance policies date back to 2016 when a Cadillac buyer told a regional radio programme he found the car was insured before his purchase. The practice appears to have picked up after the price war started in early 2023, when several brands led by Li Auto started posting weekly sales rankings on social media based on insurance registrations. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers has criticised such postings as unreliable and this month blamed them for intensifying "vicious" competition. 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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Alibaba Unveils AI Glasses to Rival Meta's
Alibaba Group Holdings (BABA) unveiled its first AI-powered smart glasses Monday, as the Chinese tech giant launches a wearable with features rivaling those of Meta Platforms' (META) offering with Ray-Ban. Alibaba's U.S.-listed shares, which entered Monday up more than 40% this year, are rising 1.5% in premarket trading. The Quark AI Glasses, the Chinese company's first, will be powered by Alibaba's large language model Qwen and are scheduled for official release in China by the end of the year. Alibaba's eyeglasses will be competing with those recently launched by Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi. "Lightweight and ergonomically designed, Quark AI Glasses support hands-free calling, music streaming, real-time language translation, and meeting transcription—making them ideal for professionals, travelers, and tech-savvy users,' Alibaba said. Wearable technology such as eyeglasses or smartwatches are increasingly viewed as the next stage in AI gadgets after smartphones. Not all wearable devices have been hits, however: Google Glass was pulled by parent Alphabet (GOOGL) from the market after two failed launches since 2014. Read the original article on Investopedia Sign in to access your portfolio
