Alibaba Group Holding is scaling down its metaverse operations, according to a source familiar with the matter, making it the latest Big Tech company to pull back resources from the once-popular sector. Dozens of employees at Yuanjing, the metaverse unit of e-commerce giant Alibaba, have been laid off, as part of a restructuring that aims … Read more
After over a decade of snapping up Bordeaux wine estates, buying into a dream of elegant living in France and good earnings in their home market, many Chinese investors are now selling up. Capital controls back home, softening Asian demand for wine and underestimates of the costs of running French estates have combined to push … Read more
Alibaba Group Holding has highlighted strong demand for emerging product categories such as designer toys and pet products during the Singles’ Day shopping festival, in the latest sign of a recovery in consumer sentiment in the world’s second-largest economy. The Singles’ Day event, the world’s largest online retail extravaganza, has seen strong growth in sales … Read more
Chinese internet regulators are removing social media accounts that use fake information to hype the country’s military strength, including false reports of “cyberwarfare” in the South China Sea. A sample post from June on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, read: “Breaking news: China and the US engaged in 12 hours of cyber warfare, causing Luzon … Read more
TikTok owner ByteDance has been losing momentum in 2024, with slower revenue growth and narrower profit margins for the first three quarters compared with last year, according to local media. Revenue growth “significantly” slowed for the first nine months of the year, while profit margins slimmed for the first time since 2022, Chinese tech media … Read more
Under its Singles’ Day promotion, Apple’s Tmall store started offering a 500-yuan voucher for all iPhone 16 models from 8pm on Monday, according to a Tmall announcement on Sunday. Prices for the basic iPhone 16 model and the premium iPhone 16 Pro Max start from 5,499 yuan and 9,499 yuan, respectively. Tmall has also offered … Read more
Alibaba Group Holding claimed progress in the use of its digital marketing tool Quanzhantui – a key measure to boost monetisation of its Taobao and Tmall marketplaces – six months after the company launched the product. Quanzhantui, a digital marketing tool for merchants, has been closely watched since it was rolled out by the Taobao … Read more
Alibaba Group Holding’s main e-commerce unit has rejected an average of over 400,000 refund requests from consumers per day in the past two months, according to data from Taobao and Tmall Group (TTG), in a pivot to balance the interests of merchants and consumers. The practice of “refund without return” has gained popularity thanks to … Read more
Chinese tech giants providing dining and travel-booking services saw consumer spending surge on their platforms during the “golden week” National Day holiday, according to data released by on-demand local services firms including Meituan and ByteDance-owned Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. During the first five days of the annual break, which ran this year from … Read more
Hong Kong has become the new battleground for Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com, as they search for new growth opportunities amid stiff competition on the mainland. Both companies last week announced heavy investments into the Hong Kong market, waiving delivery fees for certain orders and boosting related services such as local product … Read more
