China Digital Digest Weekly: Exploring the Chinese Digital Landscape

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. Vietnam Threatens to Block Chinese Retailers Shein And Temu Over Licences

https://fashionunited.in/news/business/vietnam-threatens-technical-block-on-chinese-e-commerce-giants-shein-and-temu/2024111247494

Vietnam said Chinese online retailers Shein and Temu need to register with the government before the end of November or it will block their internet domains and apps from being used in the country.

Vietnam’s government and local businesses have expressed concern about the impact of Chinese online platforms on local markets due to deep discounting. The trade ministry has also said it is worried about the potential for the sale of counterfeit items. Both Temu and Shein are also facing increased scrutiny and legal challenges elsewhere. Last month, Indonesia requested Apple and Google block Temu from their app stores to protect small merchants from competing with ultra-cheap items.

2. Urgency of AI Development At Meituan Underscored As Co-Founder Returns

https://kr-asia.com/meituan-co-founder-returns-to-lead-companys-ai-ambitions

Wang Huiwen, who stepped down last year as non-executive director and member of the nomination committee at Meituan, has returned to partially lead Meituan’s generative AI endeavour.

Wang, 46, will head the so-called GN06 team to explore new AI-related opportunities. The team is independent from other Meituan business units, including the existing in-house team responsible for AI models, according to the report. Wang has previously shown interest in AI. In February last year, several months after OpenAI debuted its groundbreaking ChatGPT bot that triggered a global AI arms race, Wang founded AI start-up Light Year, pledging a US$50 million investment from his own pocket.

As Wang’s personal health deteriorated, however, Meituan acquired the firm four months later.

3. Alibaba Arms Merchants With AI Assistant to Streamline Cross-Border Sourcing

https://techinformed.com/alibaba-conjures-up-global-trade-ai/

Alibaba Group Holdings’ international commerce arm on Tuesday unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for merchants doing online sourcing, as the tech giant continues to use the technology to improve efficiency.

The AI assistant, called Accio, is the latest offering from Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (AIDC) that is aimed at streamlining international wholesale transactions for merchants on Alibaba.com, automating traditionally complex and time-confusing operations. The launch of an AI-powered product search engine comes at a time when Alibaba is in a race with other Chinese Big Tech firms to ramp up the use of generative AI (GenAI) – the technology underpinning chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT – across its business units to improve operational efficiency and lower costs.

4. TikTok Adds Easy Music Sharing From Apple Music and Spotify

https://billboardphilippines.com/market/industry-news/tiktok-to-introduce-new-share-to-feature-that-integrates-with-spotify-and-apple-music-2024/

TikTok is adding another music integration with a new “Share to TikTok” option that’ll enable users to share music from Apple Music and Spotify to TikTok.

The new music sharing option will enable users to easily post what they’re listening to on Apple Music or Spotify direct to TikTok, with a range of sticker types that you can use to highlight the track. TikTok’s influence on the music industry is now so significant, that some artists have even changed the names of their tracks to align with in-app trends.

5. Moonshot AI Delays Overseas Expansion, Product Manager Resigns to Start A Business

https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/ai-startup-moonshot-ai-is-scaling-back-its-international-expansion-efforts-report-says

Moonshot AI has decided to halt the content and updates of its overseas products, with the heads of the related business having both left the Chinese startup to work on new projects.

In September this year, Moonshot AI decided to stop updating two overseas products that had already been launched – Ohai and Noisee, temporarily shrinking its overseas to-C applications. Moonshot AI responded that these two products were just experiments and not officially approved projects, so adjustments were quickly made; Moonshot AI proactively chose subtraction and focused more on developing Kimi.

6. Google Cloud’s Greater China President Kathy Lee May Step Down

https://pandaily.com/google-clouds-greater-china-president-kathy-lee-may-step-down/

Kathy Lee, Google Cloud’s President for Greater China, is reportedly preparing to step down, with Bin Shen, former Vice President and Head of Consumer and Device Sales for Microsoft Greater China, expected to take her place.

There has reportedly been ongoing tensions with Lee and Google’s Asia-Pacific division. Under Lee’s leadership, Google Cloud’s primary clients in China were ByteDance’s overseas operations and fashion retailer SHEIN. However, the company faced challenges in securing additional major clients, casting doubt on Lee’s performance.

7. Southeast Asia’s E-Commerce Gold Rush Draws Chinese Giants

https://www.fashionatingworld.com/new1-2/chinese-giants-join-southeast-asia-s-e-commerce-boom

The Southeast Asian e-commerce market is expected to more than double in the next six years to reach US$370 billion by 2030, according to a report from US technology giant Google, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, and consultancy Bain & Co.

The booming sector has attracted a slew of Chinese players – including Alibaba Group Holding’s Lazada, PDD Holdings’ Temu and ByteDance’s TikTok Shop, as well as regional giant Shopee from Singaporean conglomerate Sea – all vying for Southeast Asia’s 612 million consumers. The study covers the digital economies of six major Southeast Asian nations: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Together, their gross merchandise value (GMV) is set to rise 15 percent this year to reach US$263 billion, while revenues are expected to expand 14 percent to US$89 billion.

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.