TikTok pays users to shop, invite friends as US ban looms

TikTok pays users to shop, invite friends as US ban looms

TikTok is offering users hundreds of dollars to spend time in the app, invite friends to join and purchase products on TikTok Shop, in an effort to expand the business as quickly as possible ahead of its possible ban in the US. TikTok users recently began seeing a new “limited time offer”, which compensates them … Read more

No Black Friday windfall for Chinese sellers on Temu and Amazon as competition rises

No Black Friday windfall for Chinese sellers on Temu and Amazon as competition rises

Chinese sellers on overseas shopping sites, from Temu to Amazon.com, are struggling to turn a profit during this year’s Black Friday sales, as fierce competition and narrowing margins take a toll on their earnings. A clothing factory owner in the southern trade hub of Guangzhou, surnamed Xie, said Black Friday sales at his Temu store … Read more

TikTok Shop triples US sales on Black Friday despite looming ban

TikTok Shop triples US sales on Black Friday despite looming ban

TikTok tripled its US shopping sales to more than US$100 million on Black Friday, a sign of the app’s growing popularity despite a looming ban. TikTok Shop, the app’s e-commerce feature, also drew a 165 per cent annual increase in shoppers for the two days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the company said. There … Read more

TikTok owner ByteDance faces flagging growth as e-commerce rivals, geopolitics take toll

TikTok owner ByteDance faces flagging growth as e-commerce rivals, geopolitics take toll

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

Discount shopping giant Temu enters Vietnam and Brunei as app faces ban in Indonesia

Discount shopping giant Temu enters Vietnam and Brunei as app faces ban in Indonesia

Temu’s website in Vietnam, however, showed that the company’s foray into one of the fastest-growing economies in the region was apparently rushed. It currently supports only English as well as transactions made via credit card and Google Pay, while excluding leading Vietnamese mobile payment service Momo. In affluent Brunei, Temu is available in both English … Read more

ByteDance’s Douyin emerges as fast-rising rival to e-commerce giants Alibaba, JD and PDD

ByteDance’s Douyin emerges as fast-rising rival to e-commerce giants Alibaba, JD and PDD

ByteDance’s Douyin, the domestic sibling of TikTok, has emerged as a rising contender in the Chinese e-commerce market once dominated by Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com, despite slowing growth. The Beijing-based short-video platform, which has been aggressively expanding into the online shopping business, increased gross merchandise volume (GMV) by 46 per cent year on year … Read more

Pinduoduo returns some service fees to sellers after parent PDD pledges US$1.4 bln waiver

Pinduoduo returns some service fees to sellers after parent PDD pledges US.4 bln waiver

Chinese budget e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, run by Temu owner PDD Holdings, is offering partial refunds of service fees to merchants, after company executives promised to waive 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) in charges. The main point of contention arose over so-called technical service fees, which are essentially sales commissions charged by Pinduoduo for merchants to … Read more

Alibaba’s Lazada posts first monthly profit amid intense competition in Southeast Asia

Alibaba’s Lazada posts first monthly profit amid intense competition in Southeast Asia

Lazada, the Southeast Asian online shopping platform of Alibaba Group Holding, has achieved a monthly profit for the first time, according to an internal announcement. In an announcement during the firm’s town hall meeting on Tuesday, Singapore-based Lazada was said to have recorded positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) – an alternate … Read more

TikTok, Amazon collaborate on online shopping, heating up competition with Shein, Temu

TikTok, Amazon collaborate on online shopping, heating up competition with Shein, Temu

“We’re excited to collaborate with Amazon to offer a seamless and fun shopping experience,” TikTok wrote in a post on Thursday, which did not provide details on how many international markets are covered by this collaboration. TikTok users will see Amazon product recommendations on the app’s “For You” feed, according to the post. In the … Read more

Discount shopping giant Temu’s supply chain faces scrutiny as mainland sellers protest

Discount shopping giant Temu’s supply chain faces scrutiny as mainland sellers protest

Temu’s efforts to please consumers were borrowed from its Chinese sister platform Pinduoduo, known for cut-to-the-bone deals and easy-to-refund options. That policy has helped Temu grow overseas. Its gross merchandise value surged to about US$20 billion in the first half of this year, surpassing overall sales of US$18 billion in 2023, according to a report … Read more