CIW Dossier China Digital Insights (DCDI) is compiled to provide statistical information about China digital insights on the internet economy, digital trends, online users, mobile apps, and e-commerce. Click here to download.

Archive

E-commerce Market

Jul 2021

CIW Dossier “China E-Commerce” is compiled to provide statistical information about China’s e-commerce market including online retail, cross-border e-commerce, e-commerce users, and mobile shopping apps. If you need an overall insight into China’s e-commerce market, this is what you should read.

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China 618 Shopping Festival

Jun 2021

CIW Dossier “China 618 Shopping Festival” provides a perspective of the merchants regarding the performance, advertising budget, and sales expectations from the top e-commerce platforms for 618 shopping festival.

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China Social E-Commerce

Apr 2021

CIW Dossier “China Social E-Commerce” is compiled to provide four business models and statistical information about China’s social e-commerce market. Four social e-commerce models: group buying, membership, community-based, content-driven.

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China Pets Retail Market

Jan 2021

CIW Dossier on China Pets Market provides an overview of China’s pet retail market as long as the characteristics of internet users in the corresponding segment.

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Double 11 (Singles Day)

Nov 2020

CIW Dossier Double 11 is compiled to provide statistical information about China’s largest shopping festival led by Alibaba Tmall platform including pre-sale data, top retailers’ performance by GMV, and top brands on Double 11 by categories, etc.

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Payment

Oct 2020

CIW Dossier Payment is compiled to provide statistical information about China’s payment market on online payment, mobile payment, third-party mobile payment, and users’ preference for payment method in different usage scenarios. If you need an overall insight on China’s payment market, this is what you should read.

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Top Mobile Apps

Jun 2020

China’s mobile apps market, including mobile internet overview, mobile apps market, top mobile apps, select mobile apps, and mini programs.

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Taobao Live

Apr 2020

CIW Dossier Taobao Live – is compiled to provide statistical information about Alibaba’s live streaming platform.

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China Outbound Tourism

Nov 2019

Statistical information about China’s outbound travel market.

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China Online Travel Market

Nov 2019

CIW Dossier China Online Travel Market is compiled to provide statistical information about China’s online travel market including market overview, online air ticket booking, online accommodation booking, online vacation booking, outbound travel, and high-end travel.

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China Media Ad Spending

Feb 2019

China’s overall media advertising market growth and the top advertisers in China in 2018.

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Luckin

June 2019

Luckin is China’s second largest and fastest-growing coffee network, in terms of the number of stores and cups of coffee sold, according to the Frost & Sullivan Report. While operating three types of stores, Luckin strategically focus on pick-up stores, which accounted for 91.3% of their total stores as of March 31, 2019.

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China Internet Users in Tier-3 to Tier-5 Cities

Jun 2019

Quick view of China’s internet users’ time usage and expenditure in lower-tier cities (tier-3, 4, 5).

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WeChat Official Account

July 2019

CIW Dossier “WeChat Official Account” is compiled to provide a quick view of Tencent’s WeChat content ecosystem Official Account.

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Cross-border E-Commerce Female Shoppers

Jan 2019

Statistical overview of China’s female shoppers purchasing overseas consumers goods.

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China Advertising Market

Dec 2018

Statistical information about China’s advertising market on traditional advertising market, online advertising market, invalid traffic of digital ads, and mobile e-commerce ads. If you need an overall insight on China’s advertising market, this is what you should read.

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China Smartphone

Dec 2018

CIW Dossier China Smartphones is compiled to provide statistical information about China’s smartphone market including smartphone shipments, sales, and market share information as well as top smartphone brands and user profiles.

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Weibo Online Shoppers

Nov 2018

CIW Dossier Weibo Online Shoppers is compiled to provide statistical information about Weibo users who are interested in online shopping. If you need an overall insight on the demographics, purchasing behavior, and engagement, etc. of Weibo online shoppers, this is what you should read.

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China’s High-end Travelers

Aug 2018

CIW Dossier “China’s High-end Travelers” is compiled to provide an overview of China’s high-end travelers, including their travel choices, demographics, and travel habits.

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WeChat Intro

July 2018

CIW Dossier on WeChat is compiled to provide an introduction of this digital ecosystem and statistical information about China’s top mobile social application. It provides insights on WeChat Official Accounts, WeChat Pay, Mini-Programs, and advertising channels.

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Online video market

Sep 2018

CIW Dossier China Online Videos is compiled to provide statistical information about China’s online video market including online video apps, mobile video users, paid video users, short video apps, and live streaming apps. If you need an overall insight on China’s online video market, this is what you should read.

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Pinduoduo (PDD)

Sep 2018

CIW Dossier Pinduoduo is compiled to provide statistical information about Pinduoduo on group purchase model, app ranking, financial performances, user profile, IPO, and counterfeit problems.

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Golden Week Tourism

Oct 2018

CIW Dossier Golden Week (National Day) Tourism is compiled to provide statistical information about China’s tourism market for the peak travel period – Golden Week / China’s National Day holidays.

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Sports & Fitness Mobile Apps

Nov 2018

CIW Dossier China Mobile Fitness & Sports Apps is compiled to provide statistical information about China’s sports & fitness mobile app market.

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A recent unveiling at the “2024 WeChat Open Class PRO” has shone a light on its video account e-commerce business, demonstrating a nearly threefold increase in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in 2023. This growth is complemented by a more than 244% rise in order volume and an approximately 300% increase in product offerings.

Industry insiders estimate that live commerce via WeChat’s video accounts generated a GMV between 40 to 50 billion yuan in 2022. Following the reported threefold growth, the 2023 figures are projected to hit between 120 and 150 billion yuan.

Li Chengdong, an e-commerce analyst and founder of Dolphin Think Tank, acknowledges the impressive growth rates of video account e-commerce in 2023. However, he notes the sector’s scale remains modest compared to giants like Alibaba, JD.com, and Pinduoduo, whose GMVs have breached the trillion yuan mark, alongside emerging live commerce platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou.

A significant development is Tencent’s integration of video account e-commerce with its WeChat advertising system, allowing for video account livestreams to be promoted within Moments. This new feature opens up fresh avenues for traffic acquisition, potentially boosting conversion rates by shortening the consumer journey from ad click to purchase.

The integration extends beyond advertising, as various e-commerce formats within the WeChat ecosystem, such as social commerce and mini-program commerce, are linking up with video account e-commerce. This strategic move positions video accounts as a foundational infrastructure within WeChat e-commerce, facilitating a seamless flow of both public and private domain traffic within the social network.

WeChat’s new social e-commerce platform integrates Shopping Accounts

Launched in 2020 as a counter to Douyin and Kuaishou, WeChat’s video accounts rapidly developed a comprehensive suite of short video functionalities. By integrating with other WeChat services like Official Accounts, Search, and Mini Programs, video accounts have become a crucial part of the ecosystem.

The platform’s commercial exploration, especially in live commerce, started in earnest around the first half of 2021. According to Yu Haijun, founder and general manager of Guangzhou Zhi Ling Network Science and Technology Co., Ltd., early adopters included notable brands drawn by the platform’s promise of a refined operational framework focusing on user experience.

Tencent’s Q3 2023 earnings report highlighted a more than 50% year-on-year increase in total video account views, with WeChat’s video account content ecosystem and creator base continuing to expand. Partnering platforms like Weimob reported a 47.6% increase in video account merchants and a 50.5% increase in their GMV in the first half of 2023, further underscoring the growing importance of video accounts in the e-commerce landscape.

Despite these advances, some insiders express dissatisfaction with the growth rate, pointing to a relatively low ad load rate in video content compared to other platforms. This limitation suggests a need for increased user engagement and refined recommendation algorithms to boost traffic and conversion rates.

The integration of WeChat Moments ads with video account commerce represents a deepening of video accounts’ role within Tencent’s ecosystem, offering merchants enhanced promotional opportunities and streamlined customer purchase pathways. However, achieving a significant uplift in conversion rates through this integration will require meticulous data alignment and robust cross-departmental collaboration.

As Tencent doubles down on its investment in video account and live commerce, the future of WeChat e-commerce hinges on the harmonious fusion of advertising and transactional capabilities, underscoring the platform’s commitment to enriching its commercial ecosystem.

WeChat expanding e-commerce reach with mini program integration on JD, Xiaohongshu

What’s this “520 day” that intrigues many in China? The term 520, an abbreviation for May 20, denotes an unofficial Valentine’s Day in China. The number “520” phonetically resembles “Wo Ai Ni” or “I Love You” in Chinese.

While February 14 remains the globally recognized Valentine’s Day, the Chinese honor their affection on several other occasions as well, including May 20 (520 Day) and the Qixi Festival. These days are regarded as Chinese versions of Valentine’s Day, with the 520-day holding special significance as it symbolizes “I Love You.”

Despite not being an official holiday, 520 Day has garnered popularity among couples and singles as an opportunity to express romantic love.

Due to the ongoing pandemic in 2020, the “520 Day” celebration witnessed changes with fewer public gatherings. Nonetheless, businesses capitalized on the festival by initiating online engagement campaigns.

For instance, luxury brand Prada, created a campaign using the hashtag #prada520# on Weibo, one of China’s top social platforms. The campaign featured brand spokesperson Cai Xukun and garnered 180 million views as of May 5.

The “520 Day” traces its roots to Taiwanese singer Fan Xiaolan’s song “Digital Love,” where “520” symbolized “I love you.” Over time, “521” was also interpreted as “I am willing,” and “I love you” in China, earning various epithets like “Marriage Day,” “Love Expression Day,” and “Love Festival.”

These two dates, May 20 & 21, serve as annual internet Valentine’s Days in China, echoing the phrases “I (5) love (2) you (0/1)” in Chinese. While they lack historical roots, they are products of commercial promotions in the 21st century.

Despite not being official holidays, the evenings of these days see restaurants and cinemas bustling and prices surging due to Valentine’s Day celebrations.

May 20 is particularly crucial as men utilize this opportunity to express their romantic love for women, often presenting gifts or ‘hongbao.’ Some couples even choose this date for their wedding ceremony.

The difference between 520 and 521 is that the former is largely a day for women, while the latter caters to men. On May 20, men express “520” (I love you) to their significant other. The subsequent day, women reply with “521” to indicate their reciprocation of love.

For marketers in China, these days present lucrative opportunities for promotions. The rising orders of roses, surging sales of chocolates, and full-house hotels underscore the business potential of the “520-day festival.”

A few notable examples of this trend include the most retweeted photo on Sina Weibo on May 20, 2014, and a post by The Economist in 2017 asking “how do economists say ‘I love you’?” The topic #Sweet 520# witnessed almost 4 million discussions and over 1 billion views as of noon on May 20, 2017.

The characteristics of 520 Valentine’s Day include:

1. Fashionable: “520” resonates with the younger generation who find creative ways to celebrate the day, even choosing this date for their wedding. It’s also a popular topic on WeChat Moments and QQ group chats.
2. Younger: Those under 30 years old, who are quick to embrace new trends and spend much of their free time on the internet, are the primary followers of 520 day.
3. Spiritual: Gifts exchanged on May 20 and 21 lean more towards the “spiritual.” It could be a coded message of love sent over the internet or mobile phone.
4. Implicit: Unlike the globally recognized Valentine’s Day, which is for established couples, the 520 Internet Valentine’s Day is preferred by men and women to subtly express their love using digital codes.

5 key trends shaping the Chinese economy, accelerated by COVID-19

In 2022, the total views of the original content on WeChat Channel (video account) increased by 350% year on year, and the scale of live broadcast increased by 300%, according to WeChat’s data released on 10 January 2023.

The commercial potential of live video broadcasting continues to be released, and the corresponding e-commerce sales increased by more than eight times year on year.

In 2022, the number of daily active creators and the average number of videos uploaded by the video account increased by more than 100% year on year, the number of creators with at least 10,000 fans increased by 308%.

The number of video account earners increased by 101%, and the total income of live video anchors increased by 447%.

Live video GMV increased by more than 8 times year on year in 2022, and the average selling price exceeded 200 yuan. Among them, the top three categories of consumption are covered by clothing, food, and beauty.

The monthly active users of WeChat Search have increased to 800 million, and the total search volume increased by 54%. Mini Programs are widely used in scenic spots, hotels, airports, and other fields, and the number of WeChat Mini Programs has increased by 183%.

WeChat Search contributed to 27% of Official Account follower growth and 20% of Mini Program’s new daily active users. Its contribution to WeChat Channel follower growth has increased by 120%.

WeChat MAU

Over 330 million of WeChat’s (known as Weixin in China) 1.2883 billion monthly active users use video calling. 780 million users are on the social networking section WeChat Moments and 120 million publish updates. The content network WeChat Official Account has 360 million users.

WeChat has evolved from an instant messaging app to a service meeting the digital needs of over 1.27 billion MAU in Q4 2021. Each day, more than 120 million active users post in social networking Moments, 360 million users read Official Accounts articles, and 500 million users access Mini Programs (Q1 2022) daily.

For Q4 2021, WeChat daily active advertisers expanded by over 30% year-on-year. Over one-third of Moments’ advertising revenue was generated from advertisements using Mini Programs as landing pages and advertisements connecting users to customer service representatives via WeCom.

WeChat Video Accounts’ time spent per user and total video views more than doubled year-on-year as Tencent enriched content diversity and enhanced the product experience.

WeChat Mini Programs

The daily active users on WeChat Mini Programs reached 450 million according to WeChat official data in January 2022. The transaction volume of catering, tourism, and retail increased by 100% year-on-year. Mini Program DAU reached 500 million (Q1 2022).

The number of Mini Program developers has exceeded 3 million.

In 2020, the daily active users of WeChat Mini Programs exceeded 400 million, according to its official data shared at its annual event WeChat Public Lecture.

The number of mini programs used per user increased by 25%, the average transaction value per user grew by 67%, the number of programs with transactions increased by 68%, and the annual transaction volume of more than doubled in 2020.

In 2020, more than 100 million people purchased in shopping malls and department stores on WeChat Mini Programs. With the help of mini program pre-sale + offline self pick-up mode, more than 300 million users purchased fresh fruits and vegetables.

WeChat Mini Programs overview

WeChat Games

In 2020, the commercial realization of WeChat mini games increased by 20%.

Last year, the proportion of male and female users in the distribution of mini games accounted for 50% respectively. 40% of the users in the first and second-tier cities, and 65% of the users aged 30 and above.

Compared with 2019, the per capita game duration of mini games increased by 50%, and the average number of games played increased by 20% in 2020.

China game live streaming revenues to double by 2021

WeChat Search

The number of monthly active users of WeChat search has reached 700 million according to WeChat official data released in January 2022.

WeChat search staff said that in the mobile Internet era, search should not be limited by the search box, but need to be accessible by the touch. Users can search while chatting.

WeChat search will screen out the high-quality content of WeChat and produce a more accurate connection with users.

In the future, it can expand the search scope to the whole internet-based the needs of users. The search results are currently mostly provided by WeChat Official Account and Sogou.

Top search trends in China

WeChat Pay

In January 2022, WeChat shared the latest progress on WeChat Pay:

• 23 thousand monthly service providers
• Over 10 million merchants
• More than 1800 banks and Payment institutions
• 23 thousand monthly merchants
• In the next three years, WeChat Pay will continue to carry out digital upgrading of WeStore, with a planned investment of more than 10 billion yuan

In 2020, Zhifufen, a credit score on WeChat Pay, saw more than 240 million users. It boosted the conversion rate of e-commerce orders by 14% and the repurchase rate of retail merchants by 73%.

In 2021, WeChat mini stores and Zhuanzhuan (a secondhand-goods marketplace) will integrate Zhifufen.

In the e-commerce industry, WeChat Pay’s Zhifufen enables post-payment after receiving the delivery and faster refund. Users can quickly receive a refund after submitting return logistics information.

As of January 2022, more than 50% of users have activated Zhifufen, whose solutions cover more than 3000 industries. WeChat Pay unit cooperates with the e-commerce industry on “buy first and pay later”, which has been used by more than 100 million users.

Zhifufen also announced the launch of audio and video members’ services such as “watch first and pay later”, which helped solve the problems that bothered audio/music and video users to deduct fees in advance and forget to terminate their contracts.

China’s online payment users penetration reaching 86%

Enterprise version of WeChat: WeCom

In 2020, there were 80,000 enterprise WeChat partners, with a year-on-year growth of 400%. 

Acquire, convert, and retain customers through WeChat Ads + WeChat Work (WeCom)

According to WeChat, search ads will support six promotion goals, including WeChat Official Account promotion, sales lead collection, products promotion, branding events promotion, app promotion, and WeChat Mini Games promotion.

It supports three landing page types, namely, native promotion page, WeChat Mini Program, and custom link. And, based on the search ability of WeChat, WeChat search advertising can support the sale of brand keywords, keywords words, generic keywords, and generic keywords.

At present, Tencent’s mobile search advertising scenarios mainly include WeChat Search and QQ Browser search. In these scenarios, advertisers can do brand and performance marketing.

Since the launch of search feature on WeChat in 2017, it has been at the top of the main interface.

However, after five years of iteration, it has now become a “global search” that includes WeChat Moments, Official Account, and Mini Programs from the early days when it could only search local chat records and contacts.

At the same time, the search scope has also expanded to all content and services related to search queries in WeChat.

WeChat Mini Programs Insights

60% of Generation Z said that “the way brands communicate with me” plays a major role in their purchase decisions, according to a survey conducted by Tencent.

“Reliable” & “honest” are the basic requirements for brand communication, Gen-Zs focus more on young lifestyles and surprises while older generations value more “professionalism”.

69% of Gen-Zs are willing to pay for products from brands that they identify themselves with and those who can help them “decorate” their personalities. Brands have become a way for young generations to identify themselves.

Compared with previous generations, Gen-Zs tend to buy more products with specific brand images to help build their own personal image.

Building characteristic communities

Private domain channels have become the main transaction scenario, quality services are highly valued.

61% of Generation Z have joined various types of shopping groups (14% brand membership group, 24% merchant membership group). These shopping groups have a major influence over their purchase decisions. Over 86% of those who joined these groups had purchasing intentions.

Apart from discounts, Gen-Zs also expect more soft experiences, in particular acquiring knowledge (44%), having readily available help (38%), and experiencing privileged treatments, more compared with older generations.

The effectiveness of discount promotions is fading; social media content has become the new major form of influence.

Compared with older generations, promotions through discounts are having less effect on the willingness to buy of the younger generation (Generation Z 44%; group born in 90-95 51%; group born in the 80s 53%).

Private domain channels are effectively capturing Generation Z’s attention. They often see the same brand repeatedly (28%), while social interaction can effectively encourage purchases.

Gen-Zs mainly get influenced by their friends (31%), acquaintances (25%), WeChat Moments (21%), KOLs (21%) through social media.

Creating quality content

Generation Z is spending their attention across multiple fields.

Gen-Zs love to indulge themselves and also love to explore possibilities. Hobbies are their major focus point (88%). In addition, they also pay attention to acquiring new knowledge (41%), enriching real-life experiences (37%).

Compared with previous generations, they pay more attention to product/service reviews (26%) and motivational content (22%).

Celebrities are effective in promoting brand awareness. 35% of Generation Z said that collaborations between brands and celebrities have great influence over their purchase decisions.

Brands collaborating with IPs can also effectively capture Gen-Z’s attention. 42% of them said that this type of collaboration has significant influence over their purchasing decisions.

Chinese Gen-Zs attention insights 2021

There are some new “situations” in this year’s 618 festival.

On the one hand, 618 has become an important opportunity for online shopping of high value and large commodities; on the other hand, it’s also a good time for families to stock up, including the sales of home appliances, 3C, food, beauty products, and etc, which will reach the peak in the first half of the year during 618.

At the same time, many big brands lead the promotion activities, and the promotion discounts also attract many new consumers.

Smart and high-quality differentiated products have become the hot spots trends in the field of home appliances, driven by promotions from both home appliance brands and major e-commerce platforms.

Get an introduction of 618 Shopping Festival here.

80% of the enterprises, surveyed by Chinese media Yibang, participated in Tmall 618, more than half of them invested more than 30% of the 618 budget in Tmall, and 40% of the enterprises surveyed expected that more than half of the 618 sales would come from Tmall.

50% of the enterprises interviewed said that in the past year, Tmall had the highest conversion among all platforms.

CIW Dossier: 618 Shopping Festival provides a perspective of the merchants regarding the performance, advertising budget, and sales expectations on the top e-commerce platforms for 618 shopping festival.

Update (21 June 2021): During this year’s “618” (June 1-20), the State Post Bureau observed more than 6.59 billion pieces of parcels, a year-on-year increase of 24.24%, and an increase of 84.16% compared with the same period in 2019.

China’s total 618 sales in 2021 reached 578.48 billion yuan, an increase of 26.5% YoY, according to data from Syntun. Top 3 channels by total sales are Tmall, JD, and Pinduoduo. Download CIW Dossier: 618 Shopping Festival to get more sales insights.

Alibaba Tmall 618

Over 67% consider Tmall as the top platform for 618.

Among the enterprises surveyed, 51% invested more than 30% of their budgets in tmall. Among them, 10.6% of enterprises allocate more than 80% of the ad budget on the Tmall platform; most allocate 30% to 50% of their total 618 budget on Tmall.

Tmall is giving away RMB10 billion (US$1.57 billion) in consumer coupons and subsidies to help further stimulate post-Covid consumption during Tmall 618 Festival 2021.

According to the official introduction of Tmall, huge discounts will be launched from June 1 to June 20. The specific activities are as follows:

• 20 yuan off every 300 yuan purchase with a total subsidy of 10 billion yuan
• 88vip members will receive additional 520 yuan
• Beauty products at flagship stores are cheaper than duty-free stores

A total of 250,000 brands participate in this year’s Tmall 618, which is 2.5 times that of last year. A total of 13 million products participate in offering discounts, of which 1.4 million are new products.

Tmall merchants almost all started the official live streaming for this year’s 618 shopping festival. About 100 celebrities have locked in Taobao Live to interact with fans. More than 500 CEOs have already made time for Tmall 618 in the agenda to face consumers and offer more brand discounts.

For more established brands, this year’s 618 festival is all about membership engagement. Shoppers who have signed up their favorite brands’ membership on Tmall can expect more additional benefits.

Tmall 618 sales

Millions of loyalty-program members on Tmall helped drive sales for 25 brands, which had each exceeded RMB100 million in transactions on June 1.

As of June 16, brand merchants have acquired nearly 60 million new members during Tmall 618, and some saw more than 50% of the transactions come from members. On June 1 alone, the first day of Tmall 618, there were 25 brands with a turnover of over 100 million yuan from members.

Since the beginning of this year, Tmall has strengthened its membership operation. The exclusive rights and benefits of brand members will be revealed many times in the search results and commodity display pagse, and various tools such as exclusive rights and benefits of members and member interaction are also provided for merchants.

About 20 brand merchants exceeded 10 million member milestone on Tmall. Alibaba didn’t disclose detailed sales value this year.

Tmall Hey Box: Alibaba’s best seller incubator for top brands

JD.com 618

Jingdong announced it will focus on live streaming, short videos, graphics, and quiz to enrich its content marketing for the ongoing 618 Grand Promotion at a kick-off event on May 20 in Beijing.

JD.com will invite more than 300 celebrities, and executives from nearly 600 brand partners to participate in various promotions through live streaming during the promotion.

The company will also invite KOLs and celebrities to create short videos to assist promotion. More than 1,000 professional buyers or KOLs from different categories will be invited to share their favorite products to drive more traffic to JD.com.

JD will hold two galas through live streaming inviting celebrities to bring consumers the festive atmosphere of 618. Leveraging JD and WeChat’s strength, JD will offer live streaming through 10 WeChat accounts.

Over 30,000 new brands and stores were launched during 618 on JD Super, JD’s online supermarket, with over 2.4 million new products.

Shoppers in Nanjing, Jiangsu province are the most active, taking the crown for the largest order volume.

Group buying is most used in Harbin. The average amount per group buy order in the chilly capital of Heilongjiang province in Northeast China this year exceeds RMB 1,000 yuan.

Other top competitors for 618 include Kuaishou, Douyin (TikTok), Pinduoduo, and Meituan.

JD & Douyin (TikTok)

JD signed a 20 billion yuan collaboration agreement with Douyin (TikTok). And, JD’s products are integrated on Douyin in this year’s 618 festival and users can buy JD products on Douyin directly without being redirected to an external page.

JD 618 Sales

In the first three minutes on Jun. 18, JD Super, JD’s online supermarket, saw sales increase 10 times, and in the first two minutes, packaged foods exceeded RMB 300 million yuan while the maternal and baby category exceeded RMB 200 million yuan.

In the first hour on Jun. 18, JD Fresh saw sales increase 70% YOY. Looking at sub-categories, seafood, meat, eggs and poultry, and fruit and vegetables increased 160%, 105% and 80% respectively. Sales of food which require little effort to prepare increased 160%.

JD.com reported a total transaction of over RMB 343.8 billion yuan for its 18-day 618 shopping festival 2021, representing a growth of 27.7% YoY from the same period in 2020 (RMB 269.2 billion yuan).

The pet category has boomed. Post-90s consumers spent an average of RMB 507 yuan per month on pet products in 2021. During 618, smart pet products increased 47% YOY.

Luxury products. Sales of Ferragamo, TOD’s, and BALLY increased 150%, 232% and 600% respectively. In addition, over 20 designer brands saw sales increase over 15 times YoY on JD platform. Consumers continue to embrace the convenience of buying luxury products online.

Sales of imported gaming phones on JD Worldwide increased by nearly three times. Imported dry cat food increased by 108%.

During the 18-day promotion, sales of JD’s online real estate business increased 230% YOY. Sales of housekeeping and cleaning services increased 6.3 times while the order number of car maintenance increased 285%.

Genetic testing service sales increased 23 times, making it the fastest-growing category of healthcare services on Jingdong. Oral health product sales increased 447%.

The top five international brands are Aptamil from Germany, Estee Lauder from the U.S., A2 from Australia, Nintendo from Japan, and Sulwhasoo from Korea. In the fresh food category, 5 million Zespri kiwis and 260,000 durians from Thailand were sold during the 18-day sale.

Social e-commerce Pinduoduo’s road to brand upgrade

618 Sales performance of other brands and platforms

Xiaomi 618

From June 1 to 18, the total GMV across all Xiaomi’s platforms exceeded 19 billion yuan (US$29.37 bn), with a year-on-year growth of 90%.

Its sales volume of smartphones ranked first among all Android phones, the TV category won first place in the sales volume / sales values. Xiaomi 11 Pro is the best selling model on both JD and Tmall.

Xiaomi’s offline sales channels saw 123% YoY increase in total transaction values. Live streaming delivered 1.34 billion yuan in total sales, an 92% growth YoY.

Douyin (TikTok) 618

Douyin 618 started on June 1st and ended at 8 a.m. on June 19th. The top 5 best-selling brands are:

1. Chuchu (new brand)
2. WHOO
3. China Gold
4. Shepinhui
5. Huawei

Apple ranks sixth overall or second after Huawei under “3C electronics” category.

The top five are expected to have sales of more than 100 million yuan. Unfortunately, Apple, Adidas, Nike, and other international brands are not expected to exceed 100 million yuan in sales on Douyin, according to Chinese media Yibang Dongli.

Douyin saw the largest new user growth of over 392% YoY among post-00s, followed by post-90s (+225.9% YoY).

This is Apple’s second year of participation in 618 and saw a sales increase of 16% YoY, according to data from Counterpoint Research.

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Social e-commerce Pinduoduo’s road to brand upgrade

The launch of Mini-Game “Jump” (Tiaoyitiao)  made WeChat Mini-Programs (or WeChat Apps) an instant hit in early 2018. On average, 230 million users used WeChat Mini-Programs daily, 60 million more than 2017. It is estimated to exceed 350 million by the end of 2019.

Read the latest insights on WeChat apps and mini programs here.

WeChat’s Mini-Programs has covered over more than 200 industries and provided over 100 billion times of requests. The sector of public services has been available among 362 prefecture-level cities and created over 500 billion commercial value. The total transactions were 600% more than a year ago.

At the end of 2018, over 2.3 million WeChat Mini-Programs has gone online since its launch in January 2017, which increased by nearly 300% from early 580 thousand.

In terms of the total number of applications, WeChat took less than two years to surpass Apple’s App Store, which held 2.1 million apps with ten years. Aldwx.com’s Mini-Programs data statistics platform forecasts the total mini-apps on WeChat will surpass 5 million by the end of 2019.

It is becoming more and more difficult for a mini-programs to get enlisted in the top 100 ranking on WeChat.

Tongcheng-eLong and Pinduoduo took the first two spots in December 2018. 34% of the top 100 mini-programs turned out to be newcomers. On average, 30% of the top 100 would be replaced by new ones every month in 2018.

All WeChat mini-programs attracted more than 8 billion yuan (US$1.19 billion) from 110 funding rounds led by 120 investment agencies. The figure was eight times higher than it was in 2017.

Offline retail and online shopping mini-programs were the two most popular areas, which together accounted for nearly 70% of total funding.

9 Brands see great results from WeChat Mini Program live streaming campaigns

The advertising market of WeChat Mini-Programs is projected to grow from 5 billion yuan in 2018 to 20 billion yuan by 2019. The retail transactions made with WeChat ecosystem is to exceed 3 trillion yuan by 2019.

Following the launch of Nearby Mini-Programs feature, some leading retailers have successfully connected online marketing scenarios with offline. For example, IKEA WeChat Mini-Program saw 2.26 million visits in 24 hours on the day it went online.

On average, each user accesses WeChat Mini-Programs 4.25 times a day and spends 8.7 minutes on it. WeChat Mini-Programs has seen 600 million users as of the end of 2018. 72% of WeChat users have used WeChat Mini-Programs; 34% of whom used it frequently.

Business guide to WeChat Mini Program live streaming

WeChat Apps Usage Scenarios

53% of users use WeChat Mini-Programs mainly for temporary usage, 40% didn’t want to download mobile apps, 33% are automatically redirected to it after scanning QR code or clicking, and 31% just want to give a try.

User profile & usage preference

Among WeChat Mini-Programs users, 58% were men, 70% under 40 years old, 76% college educated or above, and 52% lived in tier-3 or lower tier cities.

42% of users played Mini-Games on WeChat, 39% used lifestyle services mini-programs, and 28% viewed news.

Specifically, those aged 17 years or younger mainly used WeChat Mini-Games. Users between 18 and 49 years old like to use Mini-Games and lifestyle service mini-programs. And, older users over 50 years old prefer news mini-programs, such as People’s Daily, and lifestyle service mini-programs.

Out of the 69 entry paths to access WeChat Mini-Programs, chatting, sharing, search, QR code, and shortcuts are most frequently used.

44% of users chose shortcuts from My Mini-Program in the main chat interface, 40% accessed from friends’ sharing (especially preferred by older users), and 35% entered through Official Account redirection.

Usage scenarios

53% of users use WeChat Mini-Programs mainly for temporary usage, 40% didn’t want to download mobile apps, 33% are automatically redirected to it after scanning QR code or clicking, and 31% just want to give a try.

Mini Program platforms in China: WeChat vs. Alibaba vs. Baidu

In the eyes of users, what makes WeChat Mini-Programs attractive is its ease to use (60%), no need to download apps (57%), no RAM usage (31%), and convenience to share with friends (28%).

71% of users have shared Mini-Programs to others because they deem it valuable (57%), they were asked by friends (22%), or attracted by rewards (15%).

56% shared practical tools for office collaboration, 48% shared interesting contents to create topics and enhance interactions, and 32% shared Mini-Games to show gaming advancement, earn red envelops, or invite someone to compete against themselves, etc.

30% of WeChat users have used Mini-Programs to shop. 43% of them are willing to download apps, 40% found the product offer was cheaper, and 34% were redirected from posts on WeChat Moments.

However, some program designs affect users’ experience while shopping, such as profit-provoking shares and useless vouchers.

Users’ impressions on WeChat Mini-Programs

For those not using WeChat Mini-Programs, 30% found it not easy to find the one they want as many users mainly get access from friends’ sharing. 25% found the interface choppy especially when they played Mini-Games. And, 23% are worried about a specific function because it seems only useful for temporary usage.

Overall, users hold positive impressions toward WeChat Mini-Programs. 44% of users thought Mini-Programs could replace apps for occasional usage, 36% believed it could help save the smartphone storage, and 32% only viewed it as a tool.

40% of users expect WeChat Mini-Programs to improve the interface switching fluency between chat and mini-programs. 37% expect more useful mini-programs. And, 37% wish it more active in interactions.

One-third of users are willing to download the app after they have a try with a mini-programs. However, most of the users are primarily provoked by profits to download the app.

WeChat’s new social e-commerce platform integrates Shopping Accounts

“Shopping Accounts” is under Tencent Huiju, which is a mini program for select brand products, launched by Tencent Smart Retail in December 2020. Huiju aggregates different household name brands’ WeChat mini programs including Walmart and Starbucks, similar to Alibaba Taobao’s upgrade Tmall, a platform for well-known brands.

Tencent Huiju currently covers about 11 categories of products, namely supermarket fresh food, leisure snacks, household department stores, catering and food, beauty shop, men’s clothing shop, sports hall, shoe and bag shop, women’s clothing shop, baby and children’s shop, and medicine shop.

As of May 15, a total of 354 brands have set up their Huiju stores.

Huiju is defined as “the social e-commerce practice solution of Tencent Advertising”. Huiju subsidizes the platform users with the traffic acquisition cost for social community distribution to achieve a lower acquisition cost and help the “private domain growth” of businesses.

In the future, Huiju will introduce new interactive play methods, such as group buying discounts, brand live streaming, and new user red envelope.

Tencent Huiju’s new function “shopping accounts” is more eye-catching.

The steps for users to register “shopping account” are very simple. Any WeChat user can open the Tencent Huiju mini program to easily get a “shopping account” linked to her own WeChat personal account to sell products from Huiju to potentially earn commissions.

The “shopping account” is equivalent to a virtual store where individuals share their “favorite” products from Huiju platform. Users can select product from Huiju platform and put them on the “my product list”.

The initial shopping account has only four product listing locations and one can’t change the listed product in three days.

The higher the “influence” of the shopping account, the more recommended places they can get. The account owner can share these products with WeChat friends, who could buy the products at a price lower than the platform, also known as “exclusive price”.

For merchants, they can potentially enjoy the huge traffic with much lower cost from WeChat’s 1.2+ billion users, which remains to be proven. Currently, shopping account owners can’t get cash rewards from successful referring products to their WeChat connections. And, the lacks of shopping habits on WeChat and customer support are both hindrances.

There’s a community feature where shopping account owners can see recommended products from friends as well as the accounts’ referred sales and visits:

This product seems to be still in its early stage with many frictions to clear to realize the social e-commerce potential. Check out another product Tencent officially launched as a Pinduoduo competitor here.

This week, Tencent launched an independent mobile app for Xiao’E Pinpin, which currently has a similar design as the mini program.

The home page adopts a similar design as Pinduoduo, with a popular products row set on top, including beauty products, food supermarket, etc.

The middle part is the welfare for new users, which speeds up the acquisition of new users through low price concessions. The bottom showcases recommended products.

The core of Xiao’E Pinpin is social e-commerce, so a function called “friends like” is designed in the app.

This function is similar to Pinduoduo’s “Pinxiaoquan”, which can publish the product news on this page, and other friends can comment, like, and share in WeChat Group, so as to promote the success rate of transaction while maintaining shopping interaction.

Social e-commerce Pinduoduo’s road to brand upgrade

Nowadays, the social e-commerce segment in China is still becoming more and more competitive.

Taobao integrates the daily special sale and Juhuasuan, competing with Pinduoduo through 10 billion yuan subsidies. Jingxi, the Jingdong shopping platform targeting lower-tier cities, has also been officially connected to the first level entrance on WeChat.

Xiao’E Pinpin app has built-in game shopping functions. Through Xiao’E Treasure Hunt and Xiao’E Manor, users can play games while winning products, integrating shopping and entertainment. In addition to Xiao’E Pinpin, Tencent’s latest attempts also include WeChat Shopping Accounts for its Huiju social e-commerce platform.

China social e-commerce market insights 2021

The Greater Bay Area is home to more top brands than any other region in China with 134 brands represented in the ranking.

The banking sector dominates with 85 brands accounting for 22% of total brand value in ranking, with ICBC once again crowned China’s most valuable brand.

Leading fight against health emergency, pharma sector sees greatest brand value increase, up staggering 123%. Leading the way as the sector’s most valuable brand is Sinopharm, which has recorded a 58% brand value increase to US$3.2 billion.

Retail is the second most valuable sector – with 17 brands featuring and accounting for 10% of the total brand value – and also the second-fastest-growing sector, recording a cumulative brand value growth of 54%.

The top four Chinese e-commerce brands – Taobao, Tmall, Alibaba.com, and JD.com – have all seen significant brand value growth. Taobao (brand value US$53.3 billion) and Tmall (brand value US$49.2 billion) have entered the top 10 for the first time following 44% and 60% brand value increases, respectively.

Alibaba.com’s brand value has been boosted by 108% to US$39.2 billion, simultaneously propelling the brand from 22nd to 13th – a result of a huge spike in demand. JD.com enjoyed an 82% brand value increase to US$23.5 billion, following a 30% rise in its annual shopper count.

Pinduoduo is the fastest growing brand in China, up 148% to US$6.3 billion and jumping 60 places in the ranking to 63rd. Read about Pinduoduo’s road to brand upgrade.

Perseverance of brands in investment and infrastructure development pays off – solid performances across real estate and engineering & construction sectors.

Media sector surges 33%.

• WeChat is China’s and the world’s strongest brand with a top score of 95.4 out of 100 and AAA+ brand strength rating.
• TikTok/Douyin (brand value US$18.7 billion), has taken the 24th spot as the highest new entrant.
• Bilibili up 106% to US$1.9 billion

Top 500 Chinese Brands in 2021

Members can download the list here (Excel; annual and CIW Premium subscribers).

Top Global Brands 2021

US and Chinese brands account for two-thirds of the total brand value of the world’s 500 most valuable brands, according to the latest report by Brand Finance – a brand valuation consultancy.

US brands boast a cumulative brand value of a staggering US$3.3 trillion, equating to 46% of the total brand value in the ranking. Chinese brands’ total brand value is US$1.4 trillion, equating to 20%.

Apple has overtaken Amazon and Google to reclaim the title of the world’s most valuable brand for the first time since 2016 with an impressive 87% brand value increase to US$263.4 billion and.

• Tesla leaves traditional auto marques behind with the fastest brand value growth in ranking, up 158%
  CBS is the fasting-falling brand in ranking, down 49%
• Airline and aerospace sectors account for 6 out of 10 fastest-falling brands in the ranking
• Hospitality suffers from travel and dining restrictions, as Marriott and Airbnb check out from ranking and Starbucks, McDonald’s, and KFC see brand values drop
• Mastercard’s Ajay Banga best among top 100 CEOs in Brand Finance Brand Guardianship Index 2021

Top 100 best Chinese brands, led by Alibaba and Tencent

Consumers can buy iPhones, Huawei mobile phones, Nike sports shoes, and Lancome skincare products on Pinduoduo. However, all these brands did not accept its proposal to open brand flagship stores.

Most brands still sell in the name of dealers, or refuse to participate in the “10 billion yuan subsidy”, or only provide low-end products. They keep a distance from Pinduoduo and regard it as an online factory outlet store.

An outlet store, factory outlet or factory shop is a brick and mortar or online store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public.

Winning more brands has become one of the most important tasks of Pinduoduo this year. Pinduoduo has listed the proportion of brand GMV as the focus of this year’s work, according to LatePost.

Before the government agency issued the fine to Alibaba, Pinduoduo’s related brand investment promotion activities have been accelerated.

Pinduoduo provides traffic support to cooperative brands, including promotion activities such as “super brand day” and “ten thousand people group”. In addition, it also newly designed the “official” or “flagship store” gold logo to distinguish it from the “brand” black logo of the dealer store.

Relying on WeChat traffic bonus, low price goods, and good user experience, Pinduoduo enables users in low tier cities and those who did not use e-commerce before to buy things online. In this process, the 9.9 yuan box of fruit and the counterfeit products news placed the label “cheap” on Pinduoduo brand.

Taobao and JD have become the backbone of consumption in China today. In the past year, the number of Pinduoduo buyers has exceeded Taobao/Tmall and JD, but the people who grew up with Taobao and JD have not trusted it as much.

The “10 billion yuan subsidy” that went online in the second quarter of 2019 tried to alleviate the problem.

It also really drove the growth of platform sales and users very quickly. In 2020, the per capita consumption of its buyers has increased from 1551 yuan to 2115 yuan at the end of 2020, but this figure is less than 1/3 of JD and 1/4 of Alibaba.

The participation of 10 billion subsidies mainly included the second and third level distributors of the brand, which could not improve the trust of users on Pinduoduo. Pinduoduo marketing activities also focused on highlighting products rather than stores.

The available brand products categories are relatively limited, which restricts the frequency of consumers’ shopping and the average purchase order value.

This is why Pinduoduo has now accelerated the persuasion of the brand side to open official stores: not only to eliminate the doubts about the quality of goods, but also to have enough profit space to promote, and to sell advertisements to the brand merchants with abundant financial resources.

Internal Competition

By the middle of 2020, Pinduoduo’s total investment in merchant recruitment team had exceeded 400 people.

Based on product categories, they are divided into a brand merchant recruitment team and an industrial belt merchant recruitment team. At the beginning of 2020, Pinduoduo set up an industry-wide brand recruitment team with 30 people to attract large brands.

The 30 people team was divided into two groups to compete against each other. They do not share any data or resources with each, and team members are required to compete for brands everywhere.

The competition is extremely fierce. The performance of the two groups was assessed monthly, including the number of brand stores, GMV, and GMV growth rate.

“Two groups of people will not look up to say hello when they meet.”, according to LatePost. Sometimes the two groups approached the same brand to talk about store launch, and they didn’t know each other.

In addition to the internal competition, Pinduoduo also conducts a variety of A/B testing on the product end to observe which merchant presentation form is more attractive to consumers.

In Pinduoduo’s brand store suffix, there are “brand” black label, “official” and “flagship store” gold label, and “flagship store” label. Among them, the gold label is the official flagship store, while “brand” black label and “flagship store” label are usually dealer stores.

Showing or hiding different labels are part of Pinduoduo team’s A/B testing.

Brands’ concern on pricing control

Not all brands accept the sales strategy of trading more for lower price, especially those international brands which have built multi-level distribution system and stable profit sharing.

Pinduoduo’s discount may destroy their original pricing system and affect dealers who need to pay store rent and staff salary. Pinduoduo hoped that the brand side would also participate in the 10 billion subsidy, but some refused.

In this regard, Pinduoduo has made limited compromises and agreed not to label their listings with “10 billion subsidy” and to issue consumption vouchers instead to achieve a discount.
For those brands willing to participate, Pinduoduo also relaxed some restrictions.

Previously, it had asked businesses to make special packaging materials for “10 billion subsidy”, printing Pinduoduo’s logo and QR code on the package with brochures inside explaining “10 billion subsidy” to highlight Pinduoduo’s own brand.

Nowadays, the restriction of this kind of special packaging is no longer compulsory.

Adidas is the biggest brand in the recent round of official brands launch on Pinduoduo, and it is also the company that Pinduoduo gives the most resources; the banner of “Adidas official launch” is placed on not only the top of the “my order – to be received” page.

Adidas received a lot of support from Pinduoduo but it launched its presence as an outlet store on Pinduoduo. Its daily GMV is by far below expectation.

If Pinduoduo wants to attract brands to open stores and sell to consumers directly through its platform, so as to change consumers’ impression of this platform, for a period of time, it can only accept the positioning of the online version of outlet store – a special, low-cost, but limited variety of authentic shopping mall.

The number of brands and merchants on Tmall Global grew 60%

Centered around the theme of the ‘Spirit of Nature’, this collaboration draws upon Burberry’s longstanding exploration of the relationship between humans and nature.

The fashion house’s affinity to the outdoors links harmoniously with Honor of King’s character Yao, who embodies the spirit of nature and is able to take the form of a deer – also an expression of the Burberry animal kingdom house code.

In keeping with the fashion house’s signature gabardine, pioneered by founder Thomas Burberry and designed to protect its wearer against the elements, Yao plays the role of a protector for her fellow gamers within Honor of Kings.

Yao’s two exclusive skins have been inspired by Burberry house codes as reinterpreted by Riccardo. Seamlessly blending the physical and digital worlds, Yao’s ‘Spirit of Nature’ new skin draws upon Burberry’s rich heritage and includes references to the iconic House check, the trench coat, and the Thomas Burberry Monogram.

Burberry launched its first luxury social retail store, empowered by WeChat

This skin draws upon the classicism of these Burberry hallmarks and reinvents them into a modern look for Yao to reflect her strong, dynamic and adventurous character.

Yao’s ‘Spirit of Nature’ deer takes a mirrored form, drawing upon Riccardo’s fascination with the concept of duality and the creativity found in two perspectives.

In Honor of King’s first collaboration with a brand on its ‘Legend’ skin offering, Burberry has co-created a ‘Spirit of the Forest and Ocean’ Legend skin for Yao using one of the runway looks from the house’s Spring/Summer 2021 collection ‘In Bloom’ – a collection inspired by thoughts of regeneration, dynamic youth and reconnecting with nature.

Yao’s look draws upon the collection’s mythical marine references and features a statement warm royal blue collarless trench coat and a crystal-embroidered vest. Mirroring the essence of the look, the ‘Spirit of the Forest and Ocean’ Legend deer pulsates blue light through its crystal body.

Building upon the existing partnership between the luxury fashion house and Tencent, this collaboration continues to reflect Burberry’s ambitions to push boundaries through innovation and creativity, enabling the Burberry community to explore the digital realm of Honor of Kings in an exciting new concept.

The exclusive Burberry skins will be available to purchase for all Honor of Kings players in mainland China. The skins will then remain part of the players’ permanent collection.

China luxury consumer behavior study 2020

From January to November, China’s online retail sales reached 10,537.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.5%, 0.6 percentage point higher than that of January to October.

Among them, the online retail sales of physical goods reached 8,779.2 billion yuan, an increase of 15.7%, accounting for 25% of the total retail sales of social consumer goods; among the online retail sales of physical goods, the sales of food, clothing and consumer goods increased by 32.9%, 5.9% and 17.1% respectively.

Top 100 Chinese brands in 2020

The Top 100 Chinese brands increased their worth by $106.8 billion to reach $996.4 billion, demonstrating the resilience of strong brands and their ability to build and sustain value in the most difficult of years.

Alibaba remains China’s most valuable brand for the second year, growing +9% to $153.3 billion, followed by Tencent with +9% growth to $151.0 billion.

China Cloud Market

Alibaba Cloud continued to lead the Chinese market with 41% market share in Q3, where cloud computing is a key part of the government’s development plans. It is also the overall leader in the Asia Pacific region. Alibaba Cloud accounted for 6% of the worldwide market.

China Smartphone Shipments

China’s 5G smartphone shipment is about to reach 140 million units in 2020, and all new models released by major manufacturers in the Chinese market will be 5G mobile phones. In Q3 2020, worldwide smartphone shipments reached 348.0 million units, at a 1% decline year on year (but up 22% in Q2).

Samsung regained the lead, up 2% to 80.2 million units. Huawei slipped into second place with a 23% fall to 51.7 million units. Xiaomi took third place for the first time, reaching 47.1 million units with 45% growth.

Top Mobile Apps & Platforms in China 2020

The top mobile apps by MAU growth are QQ Browser, Taobao, Pinduoduo, DingTalk, and TikTok Lite in September 2020. The top lifestyle mobile platforms are led by Meituan, Meituan Delivery, and Alibaba’s Ele.me including mobile apps and mini programs.

Mini Program platforms: WeChat vs. Alibaba vs. Baidu

Mini Programs (MP) are light applications designed to run on top of a specific mobile app. Top technology companies in China have designed and run their own mini-program framework; and, the most popular ones include WeChat platform, Alibaba (Alipay platform; Taobao platform), Baidu Smart Program, and QuickApp.

Mobile reach in 2020: Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, ByteDance

Tencent has the highest reach of 96.3% of China mobile internet users in Sept 2020. Alibaba and Baidu reach 95.3% and 91.0% mobile internet users respectively while ByteDance follows closely with over 67% reach.

The most innovative Chinese companies in 2020

Huawei has ranked the top Chinese company in Boston Consulting Group’s Most Innovative Companies 2020 list, or the sixth globally, followed by Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi, and JD.

Of the 162 companies that have been on BCG’s top 50 “most innovative companies” list over the past 14 years, nearly 30% appeared just once—and 57% appeared three times or fewer. Only 8 companies have made the list every year: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Samsung, and Toyota.

Short video market trends in China for 2020

Online video has a penetration of 94.5% in China internet users as of the first half of 2020, reaching over 888 million users. Short video market saw fast growth in the first half of 2020 with almost 818 million users and a penetration rate of 87%.

China online advertising market overview in 2020

China’s online advertising market saw the largest growth from short video ads (107.7%) and social ads (62.5%) in Q3 2020 while e-commerce ads had an increase of 14.9%.

The short video platforms with the largest advertising revenue growth are Kwai (Kuaishou), Xigua (owned by ByteDance), and Haokan (owned by Baidu).

Total paying users of Momo live video service and value-added service, without double counting the overlap and including 3.9 million paying users of a Tinder-like app Tantan, were 12.8 million for the second quarter of 2020, compared to 11.8 million for Q2 2019, which included 3.2 million paying users of Tantan.

Tantan has been accelerating the testing of its live video service since the middle of April, and live video service revenues from Tantan were 191.7 million (US$27.1 million) in Q2 2020.

Fake fans and manipulations on China social media

Momo Financial Results

Net revenues decreased by 6.8% year over year to RMB3,868.3 million (US$547.5 million) in Q2 of 2020.

Net income attributable to Momo Inc. decreased to RMB456.4 million (US$64.6 million) in Q2 of 2020 from RMB731.8 million in the same period of 2019.

Non-GAAP net income attributable to Momo Inc. (note 1) decreased to RMB669.8 million (US$94.8 million) in Q2 of 2020, from RMB1,242.5 million in the same period of 2019.

Diluted net income per American Depositary Share (“ADS”) was RMB2.11 (US$0.30) in Q2 of 2020, compared to RMB3.33 in the same period of 2019. Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS was RMB3.05 (US$0.43) in Q2 of 2020, compared to RMB5.60 in Q2 2019.

For the third quarter of 2020, Momo expects total net revenues to be between RMB3.7 billion to RMB3.8 billion, representing a decrease of 16.9% to 14.6% year over year.

Burberry launched its first luxury social retail store, empowered by WeChat

WeStore is fully open to enterprises, businesses, and individuals. The individual only needs the Chinese identity card information to be able to open the shop directly.

After binding the bank card, the withdrawal can be completed. It supports the sale of first-hand and second-hand goods. One WeChat account can launch one WeStore store for individuals only.

Businesses can only open stores by uploading business licenses, operator information, settlement bank account information, and filling in the nickname/category of the WeStore mini programs. One WeChat account can support the opening of three WeStore business stores.

Personal stores manage the backend through the mobile terminal – WeStore Assistants; enterprises and individual businesses will manage it through a desktop computer.

Value-added service providers can directly join the developers’ program, and more service types will be gradually open. At present, the WeStore service market has opened up commodity management services such as one-click moving, product bulk management, and cross-platform management, as well as order logistics management services such as batch order processing, batch printing, and logistics.

The ability of fast building a mini store mainly meets the needs of small businesses without development ability. Businesses with personalized development needs or existing e-commerce mini programs can directly access the open components of WeStores.

At the same time, WeChat’s official team will continue to iterate and open the interface and function of components to help businesses realize personalized development while reducing development costs.

Businesses can click the button below to apply for the internal test, access to the small store open components, and enjoy the relevant services and capabilities provided by the small store.

WeChat’s WeStore looks like a simple and quick way to set up a mobile store. The Enterprise version also supports up to 500 users to co-manage the store. Merchants can set different access levels for different employees.

WeChat expanding e-commerce reach with mini program integration on JD, Xiaohongshu

It also support WeStores to buy delivery insurance for users.

If the user needs to return and exchange the goods after purchasing in the WeChat shop, the deliver insurance will compensate for the logistics expenses caused by the return and exchange, and help the businesses improve the transaction conversion rate and the user’s shopping experience.

Transaction guarantee certification is another important feature on WeStore. It aims to help users find more stores with good service and bring more exposure opportunities for high-quality stores. If the service of the WeStore shop is up to standard, it can be certified automatically.

Burberry launched its first luxury social retail store, empowered by WeChat

WeStore started testing in 2020

Some WeChat Official Accounts received the invitation to try WeStore (Weixin Xiaodian) in June 2020. The invitation shows that this is a mini program for selling products that can be launched with one click and operated independently.

After opening, businesses can quickly start live streaming and sell products on WeStore. Speculations from China internet show this might be building a foundation for WeChat Channel Account (short videos).

WeChat hasn’t made Channels (Video Accounts) publicly available. This obviously carries Tencent’s hope for a share in China’s short video market as it restricts the videos to be within one minute. Check out this demo video if you are not familiar with WeChat Channels:

There’s no data yet about the user base or engagement on Channels; if taking off, it will be very powerful when combined with WeStore creating an additional e-commerce sales channel with short videos:

9 Brands’ great results from WeChat Mini Program live streaming campaigns

WeStore is a SaaS mobile store building tool created by the Mini Program team to help businesses quickly launch a mobile store. Currently, the online functions include:

• Basic store opening and operation capabilities, including product management, store operation, live broadcast management, fund management, etc.
• Good shopping experience capabilities on the user end, including product details page, shelf tools, live streaming plug-ins, etc

Currently, some third-party “shopping malls” are widely adopted and help the WeChat Official Account to build shops. They can also directly provide the supply chain, product details page, and so on, which greatly reduces the difficulties of running content e-commerce.

In comparison, this WeStore currently provides limited features. But, launching and managing a store with this mini-program is completely free and WeChat is constantly improving it.

WeChat Mini Programs overview

US President Donald Trump issued an executive order last week prohibiting US companies from any transaction that is related to WeChat.

Chinese consumers believe that without WeChat, the iPhone will become “expensive e-waste”. Following Trump’s executive order last week, iPhone fans across China are now rethinking their dependence on the iPhone.

More than 1.2 million users on China’s leading social platform Weibo have responded in the poll conducted by Sina Technology, a news media in China, asking users to choose between replacing the smartphone and uninstalling WeChat if WeChat can no longer be used on iPhone.

About 95% of the participants said they would rather change their smartphones than uninstallingWeChat. Trump’s ban will force many Chinese users to switch from iPhones to other brands because WeChat is so important to Chinese users.

With more than 1.2 billion monthly active users, WeChat is one of the most important applications in China. If WeChat is no longer supported, the iPhone will become useless for most Chinese users.

The scope of application of the Trump’s order is unclear. The most important thing is whether it will apply only to the U.S. territory or to the global business transactions of U.S. companies. If it is the latter, Chinese consumers will no longer buy iPhones in the future, resulting in Apple losing 30% of its global sales.

Apple has also warned the White House that Trump’s order will put the company at great risk. Disney, Ford, Intel, Morgan Stanley, UPS and Wal Mart have also informed the White House that U.S. companies may face serious consequences.

WeChat statistical highlights 2020

Entering the Mini Program, the user becomes a “Mom” by virtually adopting a Burberry elf for free. And, Tencent and Burberry expect this to be an attractive feature to the female audience in China. Customers can also unlock exclusive content and personalized experiences and share them with their friends.

As customers interact more in the store and online, the elf will constantly transform themselves, upgrading new roles and new styles for customers to explore. Rewards include Burberry’s exclusive Cafe meals and digital content.

Burberry also launched “social currency”, which rewards customer interaction by issuing social currency to unlock exclusive content and personalized experience. In addition, there are many places in the mini program with the voice guide service of spokesperson Zhou Dongyu, and the celebrity will provide room tour.

Through the WeChat mini program, customers can get all kinds of contents such as in-store guide and product information. User can choose to book “Burberry Space” fitting room. Each fitting room has a unique theme, and there are 10 different spaces.

At the same time, users can choose the clothes they want to try on in advance, and Burberry can play different types of music according to their preferences.

Offline shopping experience service is more than just fitting on. “Burberry Space” offline is a place of shopping and fitting, afternoon tea, and style design.

“Fitting in” selfie is a necessary procedure for many girls to go shopping. Burberry has set up a self-portrait spot in each offline fitting room to encourage customers to take photos and share them with friends.

In addition, high luxury theme cafes are no longer new, such as Dior café and Chanel café in Shanghai, but Burberry has played something that China doesn’t have.

Burberry launched Thomas’ café, which is not just an ordinary coffee shop, but a special area for the Burberry community to connect and interact. It offers lectures, workshops, and live performances in addition to various kinds of snacks echoing the “British and Chinese tea culture”.

Users can book or register upcoming events on the WeChat Mini Program. This is the second in the world; the first is in its flagship store in London, UK.

WeChat advertising trends for luxury products in 2020

Total transactions during China’s 618 shopping festival in 2020 reached 16.91 trillion yuan (about US$2.38 trillion), up 42% from last year, according to Chinese online payment clearing house NetsUnion Clearing Corporation (NUCC).

During the “618” online shopping festival from June 1 to June 18, a total of 26.18 billion transactions were made, an increase of 52% year on year, said the NUCC.

Alibaba Taobao/Tmall 618 2020

More than 100,000 brands have signed up for this year’s Tmall 618, double that of last year’s 618. More than 10 million items have been discounted to participate, which is in line with last year’s Double 11.

Tmall 618 generated a total sales of 698.2 billion yuan (US$98.49 bn). SME merchants saw one more billion orders during this year’s Tmall 618.

The import consumption of Tmall Global increased by 43% year on year. The direct purchase transactions of overseas warehouses increased by 199% year-on-year. As of June 18, more than 4,000 overseas brands doubled year-on-year growth.

Over 2 million merchants opened stores on Alibaba’s Taobao e-commerce platform since the pandemic, creating over 40 million jobs. C2M orders have grown by 500% YoY.

Tmall 618 Warming Up

On May 19, Tmall announced that during the period of 618, Tmall will, together with many local governments and brands, issue the largest scale of cash consumption coupons and subsidies this year, with an estimated amount of more than 10 billion yuan.

Chinese cities have been issuing billions worth of e-coupons to stimulate consumption.

Mini Program platform compared: WeChat vs. Alibaba vs. Baidu

According to Tmall, more than 100,000 brands have signed up for this year’s Tmall 618, double the number last year.

In addition, more than 10 million products will offer discounts in this year’s Tmall 618, which is in line with last year’s Tmall Double 11. All these figures have broken the historical record of Tmall 618.

In this year’s Tmall 618, Alibaba took “consumption voucher” as a new way of “festival making”, leading the national consumption recovery, promoting the release of China’s domestic demand potential, and bringing the biggest growth opportunity for the brand in the first half of this year.

Tmall said that the cash consumption coupons and subsidies issued by Tmall 618 will cover the broadest population ever. Besides, the conditions for using cash vouchers and subsidies will also be the most relaxed this year.

Tmall 618 presales started from 0:00 on May 25, with official sales starting on June 1 until June 20, 2020.

The epidemic has affected all aspects of society, and businesses have also suffered from different degrees of damage. They are looking forward to “a key battle”, either to turn the tide or to ensure growth.

Tmall 618 is such an opportunity. According to the analysis of the insiders, the biggest wave of consumption subsidy will come in Tmall 618 after the epidemic enters the stage of normalization prevention and control.

Tmall and over 100 furniture sellers, such as IKEA, Kohler, KUKA, QuanU, and Linshimuye, will launch a 3D shopping feature, allowing customers to “see” how the furniture fits into their homes.

Affected by the epidemic, since February of this year, a large number of offline stores have launched stores on Tmall, including IKEA, Tesla, and etc.

Close to 180 luxury brands are participating this year, nearly double the amount from Double 11 2019 Global Shopping Festival. Burberry, Montblanc, Cartier and Michael Kors are offering customized special edition items co-created with Tmall just for 6.18.

Coach, MCM, and Theory are participating in the campaign for the first time, and all recently launched outlets on Tmall Luxury Soho.

To many merchants in China, previously participating in the 618 promotion was a growth engine; but, now it’s more “life saving”.

Tmall 618 First Day Sales

In the first hour of Tmall 618 pre-sale, the total transactions increased by 515% year on year. Within the first two hours of the pre-sale, the transactions of several brands including Lancome and L’Oreal exceeded 100 million yuan. Subscribe to get more timely insights.

At the opening, an hour and 29 minutes of Tmall 618, the total transactions referred by Taobao Live reached 2 billion yuan (US$280 million), far more than that of the same period last year.

Since the launch of Tmall 618’s pre-sale on May 25, the number of live shows on Taobao has exceeded 1.4 million.

On June 1, Taobao Live delivered total sales of 5.1 billion yuan with over 20 brands and merchants exceeding 10 billion yuan in live streaming.

Jingdong (JD) 618 2020

JD 618 total transactions (1-18 Jun) reached 269.2 billion yuan (US$37.98 bn), up 33.6% YoY.

• Top categories by growth rate: fresh food, medical & health care, kitchenware
• Top categories by sales: mobile phones, home appliances, PC & digital products
• Top categories by the total number of customers: food & beverages, baby & maternal, beauty products

JD’s 7Fresh GMV increased by 100% year on year, and the turnover of more than 1000 fresh brands doubled during JD 618 sales (1-18 Jun).

More than 25,000 live broadcasts of Jingdong home appliances during 618 delivered the more GMV than the first five months’ total.

In addition, during the whole 618 periods, the cumulative turnover of air conditioners doubled over the previous year; the cumulative turnover of refrigerators and washing machines increased by 130% over the previous year; there are 10 third-party stores with a turnover of more than 100 million yuan on JD home appliance platform, and more than 1000 third-party stores with a turnover of more than one million yuan.

This is the 17th year for JD.com to hold its 618 Grand Promotion. JD will provide RMB 10 billion yuan in subsidies, hundreds of billions of discounts, and 10 billion yuan consumption coupons during the JD 618 event this year, announced on 25 May.

JD 618 Planning

This year’s 618 is the sales promotion with the largest amount of discounts ever with most new product launches. Among the many discounts and promotions offered, JD.com provided over 200 million units at a 50% discount and sell over 200 million units of new products.

JD.com would also help more than 150 brands to sell over RMB 100 million in products through innovative empowerment initiatives, subsidy support and other measures, and help more than 100,000 small and medium-sized brands and merchants to double their transactions.

JD would host over 300,000 key live streaming sessions during this year’s 618. It will also work with partners including Kuaishou, Douyin (TikTok), Wesee, Bilibili, Huya, Douyu, and others.

JD would invite top executives from brands such as Huawei, Honor, and Haier to interact with consumers directly, offering big discounts. JD’s executives and sales managers will also join JD Live.

JD Live would invite more than 100 civil servants, such as mayors, county heads, and directors of commerce to act as live streaming anchors to promote local agricultural products to help farmers and industries affected by COVID-19.

Home Appliance

Over 40 brands have created over 200 special production lines to produce over 1,000 exclusive products.

For example, Dyson would offer 70% of its Dyson Airwrap inventory to JD during 618. Some other promotions include a 60-inch 4K TV for less than RMB 2,000 yuan, a 55-inch 4K smart TV for RMB 1399 yuan, a Panasonic dishwasher for RMB 1899 yuan, and a new Midea air circulator for RMB 459 yuan – prices are significantly lower than usual.

JD has upgraded its service during 618 so that customers can enjoy a 30-day price protection policy for home appliances bought on JD’s first-party platform, and the option to replace a new home appliance with a quality problem within 180 days.

JD would also provide integrated delivery and installation service for TVs, and fast installation service for air conditioners.

JD would also offer RMB 300-600 yuan subsidies for people who trade in old air conditioners for new ones. It would provide a pre-sale video service to help guide consumers in the purchase of home appliances.

In addition, offline stores JD’s E-Space would participate in a 24-hour promotion on June 18th, providing customers with subsidies and discounts. JD’s over 12,000 home appliance experience stores would leverage live streaming for marketing promotion, covering Hebei, Henan, Hunan, and Guangdong provinces.

JD 618 First Day Sales

JD 618 started at 0:00 on June 1. According to JD, in the first hour, the transactions of Apple products were three times of that of the same period last year; luxury goods achieved a 400% growth and completing full day sales last year.

June 1st, the first day of JD’s 618 Grand Promotion, saw total transaction growth of 74% YoY. Forty brands individually achieved sales of over RMB 100 million. Check out the 7 consumption trends based on first-day sales data.

Sales of JD Super, JD.com’s online supermarket, increased by 100% compared with the same period last year. Sales of JD.com’s 7FRESH increased by more than 140% compared with the same period last year and JD New Markets grew by more than 100% year on year.

Compare with the same period last year:

• On June 1^st, sales of food categories in JD Super was three times.
• Sales of baby and maternal categories increased by 100%
• Sales of pants-type sanitary pads in the individual care category and female care increased by 12 times.
• Dental patches under the subdivision of oral care increased 19 times
• Sales of smart pet devices increased nearly 7 times
• The two-hour sales of toys exceeded the all-day sales of last year.

JD.com’s customized products also witnessed explosive growth including C2M, exclusive brands, first sales of new products, underwriting of tail goods, exclusive specifications, etc., and in only 4 hours exceeded the all-day sales in the same period last year.

JD Super brand merchants and retailers made efforts to reach the lower tier market. JD Super got off to a good start for 12 hours on June 1st. Sales in the lower tiers market increased by 160% compared with the same period last year, and the number of users from lower-tier markets increased by 83% compared with the same period last year.

JD.com’s outbound e-commerce platform witnessed a 742% growth in transaction volume on June 1st , compare with the same day of last year.  The top five markets are the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Canada.

The number of customers in Hong Kong grew by 370% year-on-year, while transaction volume by 266% year-on-year.

JD Worldwide (Cross-border e-commerce platform)

On June 18th, sales of JD Worldwide (JD’s cross-border import e-commerce platform) increased 110% y-o-y. Imported pet products increased nearly 400% y-o-y, imported beauty products increased 180% y-o-y, and imported electronics products, maternal and baby products, health care products, fashion products have all increased over 100% y-o-y.

From June 1^st to 18^th, over 30% of countries saw sales of their products more than doubled.

JD Worldwide has introduced over 1,000 new brands as of May 2020, and welcomed over 500 stores on third-party platform, including Abbott, Nestlé, as well as international chains such as South Korean department store AKPLAZA and Japanese drugstore Daikoku Cosmetics. During this 618, sales of the stores increased by over 100%.

This 618, JD Worldwide introduced 30,000 new international products to JD customers. On June 18^th, sales of new products were 15 times that of the average daily sales in May. From June 1^st to 18^th, sales of over half of the new products increased by over 200% compared with the same period of May.

Other Retailer & E-commerce Platforms

Gome’s one day GMV on 18 June increased by 73.8% YoY. 65 inch TV sales increased 186% year-on-year, and OLED TV showed 285% growth. Its 618 sales (1-18 Jun) exceeded May’s total sales.

Xiaomi’s total sales have reached 10 billion yuan across all platforms during the 18-day sales period.

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Top traffic driver compared: TikTok/Douyin vs. Kuaishou vs. Bilibili vs. RED

Kuaishou (Kwai) Technology and Jingdong (JD) Retail Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement on 27 May 2020 that enables users to buy JD products on Kuaishou platform directly.

The two companies will cooperate in the supply chain capability building, brand marketing, and data capabilities building of the Kuaishou Store, and jointly create a new ecosystem of short video live streaming.

Sales from Alibaba live streaming platform grew by 150% for 3 consecutive years.

JD Retail provides superior products to Kuaishou Stores and Kuaishou anchors will select and sell the products. Users can buy JD.com products directly on Kuaishou Shop and enjoy the delivery and post-sales services provided by JD.

This partnership is happening soon during China’s 618 Shopping Festival and will kick off during JD’s 17th Anniversary Grand Promotion (“618”) and Kuaishou’s June 16th Shopping Festival. From June 16th to 18th, products from JD’s first-party business will be available for to a portion of Kuaishou’s live streaming KOLs.

At the same time, JD Retail and Kuaishou will collaborate to strengthen brand marketing capabilities. Kuaishou’s anchors will do live streaming and short video marketing, and JD will provide joint marketing capabilities and fulfillment services, to enhance the core competitiveness of both brands.

The two parties will also explore targeted marketing based on JD’s insights on customer shopping behavior and Kuaishou’s understanding of short video and e-commerce live streaming.

“The retail industry is facing the opportunities and challenges of more and more diversified consumer demand and consumption scenarios. JD Retail has China’s leading retail supply chain, and is trusted by hundreds of millions of customers because of its quality product offerings and services. It is committed to driving the transformation of the retail industry through opening up its own capabilities. Kuaishou is a short video social platform loved by hundreds of millions of users. The partnership between JD Retail and Kuaishou will provide Chinese consumers with a high-quality experience in richer shopping scenarios,

said Lei Xu, CEO of JD Retail.

Since the beginning of this year, short video live streaming in e-commerce has been developing rapidly. Check out Taobao Live’s Stunning Growth in 2020.

As a short video live broadcast platform with more than 300 million daily active users, Kuaishou is the earliest explorer in the e-commerce live streaming industry with leading advantages in the number of users and the creation of new scenarios.

As early as June 2019, Kuaishou announced that users can view JD products in the Kuaishou app and be redirected to the JD app to make a purchase.

The latest cooperation is an upgrade and will supplement and advance Kuaishou in terms of product offering, and is also in line with Kuaishou’s goal to expand its boundaries to brands and high-quality goods.

JD will gain in terms of being able to reach new users and push into new scenarios in the emerging e-commerce live streaming market.

Explore 9 Brands’ great results from WeChat Mini Program live streaming campaigns

These coupons are for all people in Wuhan. WeChat real-name verified users can enter the corresponding mini program to collect the coupon.

At the same time, there are 1.8 billion yuan (US$254.63 million) worth of business coupons issued by online platforms. The first phase started at 12:00 p.m. on April 19 and will last for six weeks until May 31 2020. And, the second phase will start on 1 June 2020.

One coupon can be collected at a time, with a face value of 10 yuan, 20 yuan, 50 yuan, and 80 yuan. The first phase will have 30 million yuan coupons, redeemable from 20th April onwards.

The Wuhan consumption voucher received by consumers through the WeChat mini program is applicable to the merchants who use WeChat merchant payment settlement. However, merchants who use the personal WeChat payment code, will not accept those vouchers.

According to Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce, the city’s fifth round of e-consumption coupons was issued at 8pm of 20 April, with a total of 1.5 million digital card packages. Each has a total value of 50 yuan, including 5 general consumption coupons with a value of 10 yuan each and 10 yuan further subsidy for every 40 yuan consumption.

As of 24:00 on April 16, 321 million yuan (US$45.41 mn) of Hangzhou government subsidies had been claimed in the first four rounds of coupon campaigns driving a total consumption of 3.422 billion yuan (US$484.05 bn).

As of 20 April 2020, cities in Guangdong province have issued 1 billion yuan worth of e-coupons.

Update (5 Jun): Since the worst of the Covid-19 outbreak in China, the country has issued over RMB5.6 billion ($788 million) in such incentives.

China GDP declined by 6.8% in Q1 2020

Along with Taobao’s “special offer edition”, there are also “super factory plan” and “10 billion production area plan”, three major initiatives that Alibaba uncovered asd three pillars of Taobao’s C2M strategy.

Taobao Special Offer app is positioned as Alibaba’s C2M e-commerce, offering hundreds of millions of consumers all over the country quality products at the factory direct supply price.

Taobao’s Juhuasuan announced in March 2019 that it would transform 1,000 industries. By December, C2M business division was established to undertake the digital upgrading of traditional industries. In the recent Women’s Day festival, the number of C2M orders grew by 370% YoY.

In the next three years, Taobao will rely on its core digital capabilities and Taobao Special Offer to help 1,000 industrial belt factories upgrade to “super factories” with an output value of over 100 million yuan, creating 10 billion new orders and 10 industry clusters with an output value of over 10 billion yuan nationwide.

This seems to be win-win cooperation among the three parties. In addition to the lower-tier city penetration of the platform itself, the demand of consumers on the pricing and product quality can be met. And, for China’s industrial factories, more efficiency and certainty will be promoted.

The lower-tier cities market is a battlefield that e-commerce giants can’t retreat from. JD launched the first level entrance of Jingxi on WeChat, and Pinduoduo followed with more subsidies. Now, Alibaba has two weapons: Juhuasuan and Taobao Special Offer.

What’s the difference between Taobao and Taobao Special Offer (SO)?

Taobao SO UI is simpler with less (about 15) product categories. It integrates gamification features such as offering virtual coins upon browsing specific pages to completing certain tasks.

Any company or individual can set up a store on Taobao, which will be on Taobao app; but, Taobao SO app only lists selected products. See the quick demo below:

Pinduoduo and Taobao’s manufacturing strategies »

Latest on China Cloud Computing Market

Alibaba Cloud remained the leading cloud service provider in Q4 2019, accounting for 46.4% of total spending. Tencent Cloud and Baidu AI Cloud both increased their shares to 18.0% and 8.8% respectively.

China’s top 3 accounted for 73% of the cloud infrastructure services by total spending in China in Q4 2019.

Read how some industries in China benefiting from the novel coronavirus outbreak

Alibaba Cloud offered credits to organizations to buy its Elastic Compute Service, cybersecurity and other services. It made its AI-powered platform available for free to research institutions to accelerate gene sequencing, protein screening and related work in treating and preventing coronavirus.

Tencent Cloud also made its platform available to research teams from universities across the country. It launched the Cloud Office Portfolio to support remote working, which includes Tencent Meeting and WeChat Work.

Baidu AI Cloud made its online doctor consultation platform free for any medical queries, which handled over 15 million interactions. And, it also opened its platform and AI algorithm for free to research institutions.

For full-year 2019, cloud infrastructure services spend in China increased by 63.7% to exceed US$10.7 billion.

Alibaba Cloud was the market leader, accounting for 46.1% of the market. Tencent Cloud was ranked second, with a 17.3% share. Amazon’s AWS was the third, followed by Baidu AI Cloud.

Coronavirus outbreak’s impact on China’s consumption