Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com bets big on Lunar New Year gala amid heated competition

JD.com will be the ‘exclusive interactive partner’ of this year’s event, which will air on Lunar New Year’s Eve, with cash giveaways and up to 100 million gifts on offer
The Spring Festival Gala, which is the world’s most watched TV show, has been a sought-after platform for Chinese internet companies to reach users

JD.com

Iris Dengin Shenzhen

Published: 7:30pm, 25 Jan 2024

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Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has inked a partnership deal with the 2024 Spring Festival Gala, aired by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), to give away gifts and “digital red packets”, as domestic tech companies continue to leverage the show’s popularity to attract users.

JD.com will be the “exclusive interactive partner” of this year’s event, which will air on Lunar New Year’s Eve on February 9, with cash giveaways, up to 100 million gifts on offer, as well as lucky draws to win rights to drive a new car for a period of time, the company announced on Wednesday.

It is the second time JD.com has sponsored the gala, after it won a deal in 2022 following the last-minute withdrawal of its e-commerce rival Pinduoduo, over a scandal involving employee suicides and long working hours. JD.com gave away red packets and gifts worth 1.5 billion yuan (US$211.4 million) and handled 69 billion interactions during the 2022 show, the company said.

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Xiaohongshu, the Chinese Instagram-like social e-commerce platform, announced last week that it would be a partner of the Spring Festival Gala this year, broadcasting a live-stream of the show and behind the scenes activity. Users can also shop on Xiaohongshu to purchase items they see during the show, according to the company.

The Spring Festival Gala, which is the world’s most watched TV show, has been a sought-after platform for Chinese internet companies to reach users and flex their financial muscle.

In 2015, Tencent Holdings became the first Big Tech enterprise to sign a partnership with CCTV, a year after its social media app WeChat introduced virtual red packets to promote the use of WeChat Pay.

The show has since become a battleground for the country’s tech firms, with Alibaba Group Holding, Baidu, ByteDance and Kuaishou participating in previous years, cumulatively spending billions of yuan in virtual red packets. Alibaba owns the Post.

A performance during the CCTV 2021 Spring Festival Gala. Photo: YouTube

This year’s Spring Festival Gala partnership comes as JD.com is engaged in fierce competition with its e-commerce rivals. Platforms including JD.com, Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall, Pinduoduo as well as short video players Douyin and Kuaishou have launched promotional campaigns of their own, touting various discounts for the holidays.

The country’s top e-commerce players have been feeling the heat from rapidly growing challengers such as Pinduoduo, whose operator PDD Holdings nearly doubled its revenue in the third quarter on the back of a low-price strategy. By comparison, JD.com and Alibaba posted revenue growth of 1.7 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively.

Last month, JD.com founder and chairman Richard Liu Qiangdong urged employees to take more proactive action to fend off competition and fix management problems, or else there would be “no way out” for the company.

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