Topic
PDD is an online retailer specialising in the budget-shopping segment. It has quickly become one of the biggest e-commerce businesses in China, with its Pinduoduo app pioneering the concept of social e-commerce, allowing consumers to reap steep discounts by buying in groups. It has expanded aggressively overseas in recent years, launching its Temu app in the US in 2022, and subsequently rolling it out in more than 40 countries.
As many of the country’s tech founders hand over the reins, it’s worth remembering that once start-ups grow to a certain size they need professional managers to take over.
- AliExpress, the international online retail platform of Alibaba, has been in talks to invest US$72.4 million for a 5 per cent stake in Ably Corp
- A successful investment in Ably would enable Alibaba to gain a bigger foothold in South Korea, where AliExpress competes against Gmarket and Coupang
Alibaba scales back an ambitious business overhaul plan and bids farewell to a turbulent year, as its founders call on employees to embrace changes.
The municipal government of the city in eastern Jiangsu province unveiled a three-year plan to attract cross-border e-commerce projects.
There is nothing to fear from missteps because nobody is error-free, Ma wrote, after his co-founder Joe Tsai touched on Alibaba’s mistakes in a podcast interview, generating a frenzy on China’s social media.
With China at odds with Western countries in data and cyberspace management, Beijing is trying to sway other parties to side with its vision.
E-commerce logistics giant Cainiao will launch an ‘entrepreneurship incentive plan’ that will double the bonus pool allocated for its financial year ending March 31, 2025.
This initiative escalates ByteDance’s efforts to expand the reach of its social media operation into a potentially large e-commerce revenue stream.
Pinduoduo founder Colin Huang grew his wealth by 71 per cent to become the richest Chinese tech entrepreneur, aided by a rally in its US-listed shares.
PDD beats revenue estimates as it continues to gain market share with highly competitive pricing at home and overseas.
Alibaba’s latest artificial intelligence push reflects a new tech arms race in mainland China’s e-commerce sector.
The number of Americans shopping on Temu is falling, and many users plan to shop less on the app, according to recent surveys.
Chinese internet firms can look to chase growth through international markets and artificial intelligence in 2024, according to the Swiss bank.
The discount brings the valuation down from US$66 billion during a May 2023 funding round amid tough competition from PDD’s Temu while it also faces political scrutiny in Washington.
Lazada Group CEO James Dong will now also lead Daraz Group and build on the two Alibaba subsidiaries’ ‘extensive collaborations and synergies’.
Ren Lifeng left ByteDance last year and recently registered Shumei Wanwu with nearly US$140,000 in registered capital.
The biggest drags on the MSCI benchmark since the end of September 2023 include Alibaba, Yum China and BYD, which have all been offering big discounts.
With the help of artificial intelligence, merchants on the Taobao and Tmall platforms are expected to improve their services and attract new customers.
Despite their growing popularity, AliExpress and Temu are generally lagging behind the competition in South Korea in terms of fast delivery service and product quality assurance.
Chinese Big Tech firms have jostled for supremacy in a local services market expected to be worth 35 trillion yuan by 2025.
Merchants selling on the short video app Douyin can no longer opt out of the option to instantly refund up to US$211 before receiving returned goods.
The Beijing High People’s Court on Friday ruled that Alibaba ‘abused its market dominance’ and ordered the Taobao and Tmall operator to pay US$141 million in damages.
The two e-commerce giants are taking a leaf out of the playbook of budget online retailer Pinduoduo, which has had that policy in place since 2021.
Alibaba has promoted a younger cohort to lead key Taobao and Tmall operations after the conglomerate’s CEO Eddie Wu took direct control of the e-commerce unit.
Alibaba’s Taobao and cloud units will directly answer to the conglomerate’s CEO, Eddie Wu, as the tech giant seeks to take on budget-focused PDD amid low consumer spending.
PDD-owned Temu has filed a fresh US lawsuit against fast-fashion rival Shein accusing it of illegal and anticompetitive practices as part of a “desperate plan” to sabotage its business.
‘So many issues have emerged, certainly because I mismanaged,’ Richard Liu wrote, as the growth pace of JD.com and competitor Alibaba falls behind budget retailer PDD.
TikTok will buy 75 per cent of Indonesia’s biggest e-commerce platform after a new rule in October effectively forced the social media giant to close its own online shopping service in the country.
In November, Temu accounted for nearly 17 per cent of discount store market share in the US, having seen enormous growth since launching in September 2022.
Parcel deliveries reached a new high of 120 billion items this week, up 8.5 per cent from all of 2022, as e-commerce sees strong third-quarter recovery.
PDD-owned Temu has secured injunctions against some phishing web sites in US, as it continues to battle online impersonators and scammers.
