Hi folks, we are back with our weekly edition of China’s Digital Digest, wherein we bring you weekly updates on China’s digital space. The report takes a quick glance at China’s complex and rapidly evolving social media landscape by providing updates on the latest happenings across the social media industry. Here are the major highlights of the report.
1. TikTok Announces Electronic Music Hub
TikTok is taking yet another step to solidify its connection with the music industry, this time focused on electronic music specifically, with the launch of a new Electronic Music Hub in the app.
The new Electronic Music hub will provide more exposure potential for electronic music artists, as TikTok looks to capitalize on that interest. TikTok says that there’s been a 70% year-over-year increase in electronic music-related videos posted to the app, while specific genres are also benefiting, including Drum and Bass, Techno and Trance all gaining more momentum.
2. Alibaba’s New Digital Marketing Tool Boosts Singles’ Day Sales for Merchants
Alibaba Group Holding claimed progress in the use of its digital marketing tool Quanzhantui – a key measure to boost monetisation of its Taobao and Tmall marketplaces – six months after the company launched the product.
Quanzhantui, a digital marketing tool for merchants, has been closely watched since it was rolled out by the Taobao and Tmall Group (TTG), Alibaba’s domestic e-commerce unit. The AI-powered tool, which became fully available to sellers in August, served over 250,000 merchants and more than 1.3 million products on the first day of Alibaba’s Singles’ Day promotion, which is billed as the world’s largest online shopping festival, according to Eddie Liu, who heads marketing and branding business at Alimama, TTG’s digital marketing platform.
3. Alibaba Starts Singles’ Day Direct Sales, With Strong Demand for Apple Products
E-commerce powerhouse Alibaba Group Holding has kicked off direct sales for its annual Singles’ Day campaign that saw strong demand for products from major brands such as Apple and Lululemon Athletica, indicating a recovery of consumer spending in the world’s second-largest economy.
Taobao and Tmall Group (TTG), Alibaba’s domestic e-commerce business unit, started direct sales at 8pm on Monday and within the first five minutes recorded more than 1 billion yuan (US$140 million) worth of Apple purchases, on the back of deep iPhone 16 discounts, according to data provided by the group. Twelve top sports brands – including Lululemon, Nike, Adidas and The North Face – available on the Taobao and Tmall shopping platforms each posted more than 100 million yuan in purchases in the first hour of sales, according to TTG. Within four hours, TTG said more than 12,000 brands doubled their sales compared with the same sales period last year.
4. Apple’s iPhone 16 Sees Further Price Cuts As Part Of Singles’ Day Promotions
Apple has seen iPhone 16 prices slashed by up to 1,600 yuan (US$225) at its online store on Alibaba Group Holding’s Tmall platform, as the US tech giant looks to boost sales on Singles’ Day, the world’s biggest shopping festival, amid stiff competition in China.
Under its Singles’ Day promotion, Apple’s Tmall store started offering a 500-yuan voucher for all iPhone 16 models from 8pm on 21st October, according to a Tmall announcement a day ago. Alibaba’s e-commerce rival JD.com also announced a similar discount scheme on its platform for the iPhone 16 series, adding a one-year free AppleCare+ subscription on the basic and Plus models. Budget-shopping platform Pinduoduo, which had offered iPhone 16 discounts ahead of Apple’s official release on September 20, on Monday cut prices further. The 256-gigabyte version of the popular iPhone 16 Pro Max model now sells for 9,199 yuan, about 800 yuan lower than its original price.
5. Alibaba’s New Singles’ Day Focus: Protecting Sellers From Price Wars
Alibaba Group Holding has vowed to protect merchants on its Chinese shopping sites from excessive competition, as the e-commerce giant begins its annual Singles’ Day mega sales following warnings by Beijing to steer clear of unsustainable price wars.
Early efforts to improve the business environment for sellers on Taobao and Tmall, the country’s largest online marketplaces, have begun to bear fruit, and merchants can expect more beneficial measures during the major shopping festival, according to Alibaba’s domestic e-commerce unit. Taobao and Tmall Group (TTG) has introduced a slew of measures over the past months to help merchants on its platforms. They include loosening the controversial “refund without return” policy, which had allowed customers to keep both their money and bought items at the expense of merchants. The practice has gained popularity thanks to promotions by Pinduoduo, a competing marketplace run by PDD Holdings.
6. Alibaba Opens Walled Garden to Rival JD.Com’s Logistics Services
Alibaba Group Holding is giving merchants on its e-commerce platforms the option to use logistics services from rival JD.com, the latest example of Chinese tech giants moving to tear down digital walls that once separated their ecosystems.
A range of services offered by JD.com’s logistics arm, from warehousing to shipping, will become available to merchants on Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall, the two largest online marketplaces in China, according to a statement from JD Logistics. Customers can then choose JD as their preferred courier for delivery or returns, and track their packages directly on Taobao or Tmall.
7. JD.Com Issues Apology to Customers After Singles’ Day Campaign Sparks Backlash
The Singles’ Day campaign of e-commerce giant JD.com started off on the wrong foot, as a number of users threatened to abandon the platform owing to its collaboration with controversial female stand-up comedian Yang Li.
Yang, known for her biting jokes about men, appeared in a JD.com live-streaming session that sparked a four-day backlash from some of the platform’s users, which prompted the Beijing-based online retailer to issue an apology later. JD.com also deleted a Monday post on Weibo that invited users to join the live-streaming session hosted by Yang on that day. She was tasked to promote healthcare products for the platform. According to JD.com’s statement posted on the Chinese microblogging site, the company assured customers that it does not have any follow-up projects with Yang.
8. Alibaba Sees Double-Digit Sales Growth for Singles’ Day in Hong Kong
Alibaba Group Holding expects to record double-digit sales growth for its Singles’ Day campaign in Hong Kong, following the launch of a 1 billion yuan (US$142 million) promotion to waive delivery charges for Taobao users in the city.
Taobao, mainland China’s largest online shopping platform, has so far achieved double-digit, year-on-year growth in both gross merchandise value (GMV) and order volume in Hong Kong on the back of that promotion, according to David Ye Jianqiu, general manager of Tmall Taobao World, a unit of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (AIDC). Alibaba’s latest promotion for Taobao users in Hong Kong reflects the group’s efforts to boost services outside its home market through international e-commerce unit AIDC, as competitors on the mainland have also stepped up their operations in the city.
9. Alibaba’s International Arm Says Its New AI Translation Tool Beats Google and ChatGPT
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s international arm has launched an updated version of its artificial intelligence-powered translation tool that, it says, is better than products offered by Google, DeepL and ChatGPT.
That’s based on an assessment of Alibaba International’s new model, Marco MT, by translation benchmark framework Flores, the Chinese company said. Alibaba’s fast-growing international unit released the AI translation product as an update to one unveiled about a year ago, which it says already has 500,000 merchant users. Sellers based in one country can use the translation tool to create product pages in the language of the target market.
10. Microsoft Ends Azure OpenAI Service for Individual Developers in China
Microsoft Azure OpenAI has stopped its services for individual developers in China. The service discontinuation is being implemented due to regulatory requirements, according to the notice received by developers.
Many developers posted online that they received emails from the official stating the “service termination”. Azure OpenAI was the only legal channel in mainland China to use OpenAI. Reporters immediately contacted Microsoft officials for confirmation and received an affirmative response. Microsoft emphasized that this will only affect non-enterprise users in mainland China, while enterprise users can still continue using the service.
11. The Revenue of the Chinese Gaming Market in Q3 Increased Year-On-Year to A Record High
The China Audiovisual and Digital Publishing Association’s Game Committee has released the latest quarterly report on the Chinese gaming industry for the third quarter of 2024.
The data shows that in the third quarter of 2024, the revenue of China’s gaming market reached 91.766 billion yuan, an increase of 22.96% compared to the previous quarter and an increase of 8.95% year-on-year. The China Audiovisual and Digital Publishing Association pointed out that in this quarter, new mobile games and top products brought significant revenue growth, while “Black Myth: Wukong” also contributed significantly to the standalone and console markets, leading to a record high revenue for the Chinese gaming market.
In the third quarter of this year, actual sales revenue from China’s mobile gaming market reached 65.658 billion yuan, up by 20.20% compared to the previous quarter and up by 1.21% year-on-year; actual sales revenue from China’s client game market was at 16.926 billion yuan, down by 0.39% compared to the previous quarter but up by 0.40% year-on-year.
12. Google Launches Its First Cross-Border E-commerce Acceleration Center in Xiamen, China
Google has announced the official launch of its first cross-border e-commerce acceleration center in Xiamen, a city in southern China. The center is part of Google’s cross-border e-commerce acceleration program, which is expected to cover Xiamen and Shenzhen in its first phase.
The offline acceleration center will focus on three service functions: market education, ecosystem aggregation, and seller incubation. Market education will cooperate with industry experts to provide professional courses to help sellers systematically understand the DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) model. Ecosystem aggregation aims to introduce high-quality ecosystem service partners and provide Google customers with exclusive discounts and services to meet the development needs of sellers’ independent sites. Seller incubation integrates Google resources to create a one-stop solution for independent sites, supporting potential sellers to quickly launch independent sites.
13. Meituan Is Testing the ‘Takeout Version of Xiaohongshu’
Meituan is testing a service called “Local Eating” in Beijing, Shanghai, and other places. This service is embedded in the Meituan App’s food delivery service and is similar to a takeout version of “Xiaohongshu.”
Users and Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) can share the takeaway orders they have purchased through creating content, allowing other users to discover hidden gems and merchants. Users can place an order by clicking on the corresponding “buy these products.” The service also includes an AI writing assistance feature to further reduce the threshold for user creation.
Wrapping Up
The vast and diverse nature of the Chinese Social Media space makes it incredibly challenging to keep a tab on the rapid developments taking place. However, China’s Digital Digest brings you all the latest updates from there to keep you abreast of all the evolving trends.
To delve deeper into the findings of our latest report, click here.
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