China’s Suzhou city plans supercharged cross-border e-commerce business after Shein and Temu success

The hi-tech manufacturing hub of Suzhou has unveiled a plan to double the city’s cross-border e-commerce annually for the next three years, as it looks to tap into the growing influence of Chinese platforms such as Shein and PPD Holdings’ Temu. The municipal government of the city in eastern Jiangsu province has issued a policy … Read more

Chinese social media platform Weibo removes fake images showing a rapidly ageing Tencent founder Pony Ma

Chinese social media platform Weibo has deleted a number of accounts publishing and spreading a retouched photo of a grey-haired and wrinkle-faced Pony Ma Huateng, Tencent Holdings’ founder and CEO, in the latest example of efforts to protect the country’s top entrepreneurs from online abuse. “A small number of users posted and hyped up false … Read more

Alibaba’s logistics unit Cainiao to double year-end bonus for employees, in morale-boosting move after scrapped IPO

Hangzhou-based Cainiao will launch an “entrepreneurship incentive plan” that will double the bonus pool allocated for the financial year ending March 31, 2025, according to company chief executive Wan Lin in excerpts from an internal letter seen by the South China Morning Post. That means employees will receive their standard year-end bonus in April 2025 … Read more

ByteDance-owned Douyin launches stand-alone shopping app in China, heating up the competition against Alibaba, JD.com, PDD

Douyin Mall was launched last week as a downloadable app for Android users in mainland China, the world’s largest smartphone market. An Apple iOS version of the app was not released as of Tuesday. The new app serves “as an extension of the Douyin platform, designed to elevate the overall shopping experience of [its] existing … Read more

PDD’s Colin Huang surpasses Tencent, ByteDance founders as China’s richest tech billionaire after Pinduoduo outgrows e-commerce rivals

Colin Huang, the founder of PDD Holdings, has become China’s richest technology entrepreneur after a surge in the value of its US-listed shares, allowing him to surpass the nation’s more illustrious tycoons Pony Ma Huateng of Tencent Holdings and Zhang Yiming of Bytedance. The 44-year-old grew his wealth by 71 per cent to 385 billion … Read more

Is Temu legit? Everything you need to know about the app

Have you been looking for an Amazon shopping alternative? Outside of getting in your car and heading to your local brick-and-mortar establishment (scary, we know), one smartphone and tablet-friendly shopping tool you could take for a spin is Temu.  Launched in September 2022, Temu prides itself on its cost-friendly approach to buying stuff online. But … Read more

Alibaba tests generative AI tools for Taobao and Tmall merchants as new tech arms race heats up China’s e-commerce sector

The generative AI tools provided by Huiwa, operated by Alibaba subsidiary Hangzhou Lianfan Information Technology, enable merchants to create both text and graphics content. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. A merchant, for example, can input a brief description of a product, which prompts the tool to create customised content for marketing and promotion. … Read more

China price wars help spark US$157 billion rout in mainland consumer stocks as Alibaba, Yum China and BYD drag the market

Gauges of consumer stocks have been the worst performers on the MSCI China Index since the end of September, after the real estate measure. The aggregate market value of companies included in the two consumer indexes has fallen by about US$157 billion since. Consumer stocks have been the worst performers on the MSCI China Index … Read more

Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall Group pushes new AI tools to boost merchants’ service to consumers in first major move after leadership reshuffle

The Taobao and Tmall Group (TTG) unveiled the new AI features, which are designed to improve services and attract new customers, at its “sellers’ conference” held on Tuesday in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province and home base of South China Morning Post owner Alibaba. TTG said AI models would be employed to transform Dianxiaomi, … Read more

ByteDance’s Douyin makes instant refunds mandatory, following PDD, Taobao and JD.com amid fierce e-commerce competition

Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok that is betting big on e-commerce, has made its “express refund” policy mandatory, forcing merchants to immediately return money to consumers upon request to compete with similar offerings on Taobao and Pinduoduo. The platform operated by Beijing-based ByteDance, which added a shopping channel in 2019, allows users to get … Read more