ALIBABA’S NEWEST 11.11 GMV RECORD: US$38.4B

Eleven years in, and Alibaba Group, the e-commerce and media giant that created and grew 11.11 into the world’s largest shopping festival, is still delivering record results – and the innovations necessary to make them happen every November.

By the time 11.11 ended at midnight on Monday, Alibaba had generated RMB268.4 billion (US$38.4 billion) in gross merchandise volume in just 24 hours, a 26% jump over last year’s numbers. GMV in 2018 was RMB213.5 billion, or US$30.8 billion.

“Today we showed the world what the future of consumption looks like for brands and consumers,” said Fan Jiang, president of Taobao and Tmall. “We are meeting the growing demand of Chinese consumers and helping them upgrade their lifestyles, while introducing new users to our digital economy from across China and around the world.”

WATCH: Highlights from 2019’s 11.11 Global Shopping FestivalPlay

In addition to a new record GMV, the total number of delivery orders also reached a new high: 1.292 billion, up 59% from 812 million last year. There were 299 brands to reach RMB 100 million in GMV, including Apple, Nike, Estee Lauder and Giorgio Armani. The top 10 countries selling to China through Alibaba’s cross-border platforms were Japan, the U.S., Korea, Australia, Germany, France, the U.K., New Zealand, Italy and Canada.

Last year’s festival was all about the Alibaba ecosystem, and certainly that ecosystem continues to play a critical role in setting new GMV records and generating greater levels of consumer engagement, as Alibaba draws additional businesses into 11.11. 2019, however, was all about consumers: where they are in China, how to reach them and providing them with the best possible selection of products.

Capturing Lower-Tier Consumption

Increasingly, those consumers are in China’s lower-tier cities and rural areas. Alibaba had said that it expected most of the 100 million new users participating in this year’s 11.11 to come from these areas, where China’s biggest consumption growth is happening. In fiscal 2019, more than 70% of Alibaba’s 102 million newly acquired annual active consumers were based there.

“Lower-tier areas are the most important business strategy for us this year and a strategic direction for the company, because China’s less-developed markets have a lot of potential for growth when you consider their population, geography and shopping habits,” said Liu Bo, general manager of Taobao and Tmall Marketing, at a press conference on Monday afternoon.

Alibaba is leveraging its powerful consumer analytics and supply-chain capabilities to create new products for lower-tier consumers, Liu said, firstly by partnering with multinational brands, such as P&G and L’Oréal, and secondly by working with China’s vast network of manufacturers. The company provides both brands and manufacturers with the data they need to develop and market products tailored directly to these new online shoppers.

By delivering better-quality goods at affordable prices, consumers in lower-tier areas “have a lot of potential to make frequent purchases,” Liu said. And Alibaba wants to capture that consumption.

New Products to Meet New Demand

As essential as lower-tier areas are to Alibaba’s growth strategy, the company’s focus on new products is not bound by geography. In fact, this year’s 11.11 alone included 1 million new products on the company’s e-commerce platforms.

“We take new products as a major strategy for this year’s 11.11 has become the largest platform to launch new products,” Liu said. “Many international brands are leveraging the platform and the results have been excellent.”

For example, cosmetics brand MAC sold 60,000 units of a limited-edition, just-for-11.11 lipstick in five minutes of pre-sales. And brands are committed to developing even more new products for Alibaba’s platforms going forward. Ten global brands, including Olay and Shiseido, have committed to incubate more than 50% of their new products with Tmall this year, Jiang said.

The Must-Do of Livestreaming

Once just a single marketing tool among many for brands selling to China, livestreaming has since become a must for any company that wants the attention of Chinese consumers.

These consumers use livestreams, typically hosted by popular key opinion leaders, to find and learn about new products, making it an essential part of product discovery. That’s a stark contract to the West, where most livestreaming platforms are focused on gaming and entertainment.

Just how popular is the trend? Taobao is home to over 4,000 livestream hosts who generate 150,000 hours of content each day. For 11.11, more than 100,000 brands and merchants used livestreaming to market their products.

“It’s a brand-new experience. Livestreaming is becoming ubiquitous for merchants and a new [shopping] channel for consumers,” he said.

A Green 11.11

Jiang said that Alibaba’s logistics arm, Cainiao, had delivered 100 million packages before 8 a.m. on Monday, just eight hours into 11.11. But he said the company was committed to fulfilling those orders sustainably.

“Green is the most important keyword for this 11.11,” Jiang said. “We’ve shipped 1.292 billion packages, but through this we want even more to promote the concept of green consumption.”

To that end, Cainiao has set up more recycling stations – 40,000 of them – across China through its Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, while its express-courier partners is hosting an additional 35,000. Consumers will also be rewarded “green energy” points on Ant Forest for their recycling efforts.

Alibaba has established Nov. 20 as “National Cardboard Box Recycling Day” in China, as well, to further promote its push for a green shopping festival.

JD expands the partnership with Camus Cognac

JD will work with Camus to launch exclusive products based on the opinions of Chinese consumers

Camus Cognac, the world’s largest family-owned independent cognac home, has announced an expansion of its partnership with JD.com, the largest Chinese retailer. As part of the extended partnership, in addition to offering several Camus premium brands to consumers, JD will work with the parent company to launch exclusive products, based on consumer opinions about Chinese market trends. Taking advantage of its various offline resources, JD will help Camus develop innovative marketing programs; a project in line with JD’s “Boundaryless Retail” strategy.

JD’s analysis of Chinese imported liquor consumers has found that many of them belong to a wealthy age group, aged between 26 and 35, curious to try new products. Based on this, Camus Cognac recently launched a Cognop VSOP gift pack on JD. The product has rich flavours and is ideal for young consumers interested in exploring new spirits.

The new partnership enthused both parties at stake

Cyril Camus, fifth-generation owner and president of Camus Cognac, said: “We are excited to grow our partnership and collaboration with JD.com. While Chinese consumers of wine and spirits continue to mature in refinement, I am confident that this partnership represents the perfect combination, mixing the incessant drive of Camus Cognac for JD’s utmost refinement and dedication to an impeccable omnichannel shopping experience “.

“We are excited to expand our strategic partnership with Camus Cognac,” said Carol Fung, president of JD FMCG. “We look forward to leveraging JD’s capabilities in customer analysis, marketing solutions and technology to increase the recognition of the Camus brand among Chinese consumers who are passionate about high-quality liquor.”

The number of imported spirits consumed in China will grow by 20% in four years

The extended partnership comes as demand for high-quality spirits in China continues to grow. According to industry estimates, the number of imported spirits consumed in China should grow by 20% within four years, from a total of 4.4 million boxes in 2018 to 5.3 million boxes in 2022.

In 2018, as a testament to the importance of the market, China surpassed Singapore for the first time, becoming the world’s second-largest cognac buyer after the United States, with over 255 million bottles consumed.

Douyin? Here the Future of Social E-Commerce

Today it’s clear how Douyin is showcasing the future of social and e-commerce. Focus on Douyin if you want to win in China. Let’s see why

Chinese e-commerce sector is booming, having a higher e-commerce spend this year than the rest of the world combined. Last data show us, again, how China is such a big opportunity for brands. As we know, the Dragon, once known as less connected country in the world, has become the land of the e-commerce giants with Alibaba and JD amongst many others all dominating online spend right now. But other new players are growing behind the curtain. Pinduoduo, Meituan, Kuaishou, Little Red Book and Douyin some names.

© Weibo. Zhang Yiming recognized the importance of the social networks environment, so Douyin also integrated social sharing with major platforms such as QQ, Weibo, and WeChat.

That’s why is not wrong to say that the opportunity for brands isn’t in the Alibaba’s & JD’s. Whilst they account for over 50% of Chinese e-commerce, it’s more effective as a brand to go after the other portion that isn’t the lions share that is found through other e-commerce channels. Let’s see how Douyin is becoming month by month an important player in e-commerce sector. We’ve mentioned Douyin but also the “underbelly” of Chinese commerce, such as private communities, for example social sellers on WeChat.

Short-Form vertical video is going to be the dominant format over the next 5 years, and Douyin is the platform that will lead the way. We’ve always been confident on short-form video, and a large reason for that is the huge growth of Douyin, with over 500m monthly active users and rising, and over 50% of those using the app daily.

Today it’s clear that Douyin is showcasing the future of social and e-commerce, seamlessly integrating the two through content and future technologies. 

Douyin’s latest feature is a true game-changer. You can now select a feature in a video, for example, a person or item of clothing, and search for other videos or images containing them or directly buy the products recommended. What’s the meaning? It’s what we’ve predicted will happen: Next generation of social media led by AI. 

Could be a shock, but forget Tmall, Taobao and WeChat – focus on Douyin if you want to win. Let’s see why. Right now Douyin’s aims are to get as many users as possible and grow the platform, even outside China, and give exposure to great content, there is no ulterior motive like there is with other social platforms that are pay-to-win.

© Chinadaily. Video-based e-commerce is shaping up to be the next revenue battleground for China’s leading video apps, Douyin and Kuaishou.

On Douyin, content wins, and that’s the best time for brands to build an audience.  Digital experts always been bullish on short-form video and Douyin in particular, and this latest feature reinforces that and opens up a world of possibility for brands in connecting with their audience. Brands need to be working toward how they can leverage the direction that social is moving to, and they need to be doing that now – this is merely the tip of the iceberg. Are you going to start building an audience on Douyin?

China is a huge opportunity, but everyone should remember that it pays tenfold if you think outside the box, be bold and be creative. Think beyond the status quo platforms that everyone talks about and look at the opportunities everyone forgets. This is where the real arbitrage can be found, and Douyin is one the top player to interact with.

Alibaba Group To Improve The Experience Of Visitors To Universal Parks & Resorts

The two have formed a partnership to improve the user experience and to digitize the operations of the future Universal Beijing Resort, which will open in 2021

A cutting-edge theme park with the best technology that improves the user experience. This is the Alibaba and Universal Parks & Resorts project that intends to make the future Universal Beijing Resort, which will open in 2021, one of the most technological theme parks in the world.

The park will use facial recognition during park admission, app-based food ordering and more. To help is the ABOS project, which offers all the tools and services of Alibaba to companies so that they can better meet the pace and needs of the Chinese market.

Brian Roberts, president and CEO of US communications and entertainment company Comcast, owner of Universal Studios, said it was important to make sure that Universal makes it fun and easy for guests to enjoy their time with family and friends.

Visitors can use the local Koubei service app

“Our collaboration with Alibaba will help us do exactly that. Together, we can take the theme park experience to a new level, “Roberts said.

Visitors will be able to book tickets and hotels via Beijing’s Universal Fliggy flagship store and will also be able to watch the resort’s schedule and universal movies on Alibaba’s Youbu video streaming app.

Once at the resort, visitors have the opportunity to use Alipay’s facial recognition technology for anything. The use of Alipay mini-programs is also planned to improve the guest experience, such as travel planning or parking, as well as encouraging low-carbon lifestyle choices.

Alibaba’s cloud computing arm will support the technology infrastructure

The companies, which also collaborate with the Beijing Tourism Group, expect the collaboration to offer “the best experience for guests” and establish a new benchmark for the entertainment industry and theme parks globally.

Daniel Zhang, executive president and CEO of Alibaba Group, said: “This partnership will also bring to fruition a multidimensional, data-enabled operations-management solution for the industry and create a truly digitized theme park,” he said. “The future of commerce is driven by technology and big data, and digitization will be the source of brand-new growth opportunities for all businesses.”

The Alibaba Business Operating System (ABOS) program is a complete solution that helps brands use all the tools available in the corporate ecosystem, which includes marketing and branding, sales, product development, customer services, finance, logistics, supply chain and management channel and local services on request.

China, The New E-Commerce Trend Is Second-Hand Luxury

The trend is confirmed by Liu Bo, general manager of TusStar Venture

The Chinese luxury goods sector has received a steady stream of investments in recent years. TusStar is one of the capital investors that pays money in the sector, acting as the main investor for the high-end operator of used Ponhu-Luxury.

Building an integrated offline platform for second-hand luxuries is what the market will need in the future, TusStar Venture’s general manager Liu Bo told TechNode.

“In Japan, the penetration rate for used luxury goods has reached a 1: 1 ratio, which means that every time a new stock is bought, an old one will be resold. In China, only 3% of the stock is sold. Basically, nobody bought second-hand luxuries,” Liu said.

TusStar invests in high-tech, high-growth start-ups

Liu expects growth in the market for the sale of high-end used products in China. “One must think that one day, if an economic recession hit China, second-hand luxuries would retain their value as they did in Japan in the past. The cultures of East Asia are similar. We see promising growth points in the luxury sector second-hand in China “.

In his current role, Liu keeps an eye on TMT investment opportunities, energy savings and the environment, as well as the new economy and new services.

Moreover, TusStar invests in high-tech and high-growth start-ups, focusing mainly on TMT, mobile internet, cleantech, new material, health care, advanced production, education, intelligent hardware and consumption area. The company, in confirmation of this, has signed agreements with over 300 startups and so far has invested over 2 billion RMB.

But China, despite strong progress, seems to appreciate offline trade more

Some argue that digitization is the main driving force behind luxury sales in China, but Liu argues that the real “battle” develops offline. “Only some users might consider buying luxuries online. Most customers, in fact, care little about the discount, aiming more at brands and quality.”

According to a report published by Bain Analysis in 2019, although online luxury sales have surpassed the global market in 2018, online penetration in other luxury categories remains very low, with the exception of cosmetics.

“There are still many opportunities to build platforms in this area,” Liu said. “But it’s not the kind of e-commerce platform on the Internet that people talk about today, but an offline platform that unites all the key nodes of the entire commercial chain.

Alipay And WeChat Pay Say “No” To Cryptocurrency Transactions

The new Binance approach, one of the largest digital currency exchange rates in the world, has been avoided by the Chinese mobile payment giants in peer-to-peer trading

Alipay and WeChat Pay, Chinese giants in the field of mobile payments, reiterated their position on the prohibition of crypto-activity trading, especially after the news that the Binance cryptocurrency exchange allowed peer-to-peer trading against the Chinese yuan.

Binance, one of the largest digital currency exchanges in the world, announced on Wednesday that it had launched a peer-to-peer trading function that would allow the transaction of traditional cryptocurrencies – including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether – against the yuan.

Alipay has denied its support via Twitter

Zhao Changpeng, CEO of Binance, said in a tweet that the proposed exchange would offer Alipay and WeChat Pay trading in China. The rebuttal of Alipay came early and with a sharp “no”, again via a Twitter post.

The largest Chinese mobile wallet, owned by the e-commerce giant Alibaba, has in fact declared to closely monitor the counter transactions to identify irregular behaviour and at the same time guarantee compliance with the relevant regulations.

“If any transaction is identified as being related to bitcoins or other virtual currencies, Alipay immediately stops payment services,” it was made known; therefore, crystalline transparency for each operation.

Tencent, with WeChat Pay, has dispelled any doubts from users

WeChat Pay, Tencent’s mobile payment system, wanted to dispel the confusion that threatened to be created among its users, stating, with severe and firm tones, that it does not support any type of crypto-activity trading and that it has never integrated no cryptocurrency trader in his platform, according to reports from the local media SinaTech.

Meituan Exceeds Baidu: It is The Third-Largest Internet Company In China

The delivery food platform is preceded only by Alibaba and Tencent

Meituan, the Chinese delivery food platform, closed at $ 89 per share on October 8th, up 5.08% from the previous day, reaching an all-time high of $ 89.25 per share with a market capitalization of $ 516.2 billion.

The evaluation currently makes Meituan the third largest Internet company listed in China after Alibaba ($ 428.3 billion) and Tencent ($ 394.3 billion).

On the other hand, Chinese Internet research and Baidu’s artificial intelligence engine closed at $ 99.53 on October 9 with a value of its US stock market at $ 34.69 billion, actually lagging behind Meituan as the fourth largest Chinese Internet giant.

Meituan and Tencent are currently the two kings of Hong Kong shares

As a Meituan pillar activity, the financial report shows that the transaction amount of food and beverage delivery activities in the second quarter of 2019 was 93.1 billion yuan, up 36.5% year-on-year; the number of food and beverage delivery orders was 2.1 billion yuan, an increase of 34.6% on an annual basis. Furthermore, the average value increased by 1.4% on an annual basis.

According to an analyst at Tiger Securities, Meituan and Tencent are currently the two kings of Hong Kong shares. The data also showed that Tencent Holdings, in recent days, recorded a turnover of 4.967 billion HK $, while the turnover of Meituan approached 3.238 billion HK $.

JD Expands Logistics With a New Storage Service

Customers will be able to track every step of the archiving process through the JD Express Delivery mini-program on WeChat

Individuals and small businesses can now store their products in JD.com warehouses. The new initiative, which exploits JD’s capabilities to provide a professional filing solution in China, is the latest example of how the company can offer logistics beyond its borders.

Using the service, customers are able to track every step of the archiving process from start to finish on their phones, via the JD Express Delivery mini-program on WeChat. JD offers a professional solution for every storage need, from short term storage to long term storage.

Companies that need to keep supplies for an event, people who are changing homes, college students who need to store things during summer vacations or anyone else, can now meet their short-term storage needs with JD.

At the same time, avid shoppers who wish to set aside their out-of-season wardrobe, as well as people who want to store sports equipment like scooters, bicycles and other hobby-related items, can opt for JD’s long-term storage solution.

JD is known among Chinese customers for reliability, trust and speed

The new service was launched in response to the clear market demand for convenient and reliable storage services. JD has in fact seen the demand for storage solutions increase exponentially, in particular, while rents in first and second-tier citations in China continue to increase every year. This is in contrast to many personal storage providers in China, which generally have to work with third parties such as real estate companies, and therefore struggle to provide a convenient and high-quality service.

“JD is known among Chinese customers for reliability, trust and speed,” said Bing Fu, Head of Strategy and Innovation at JD Logistics, the business group managed by JD.com responsible for this project. “This easy-to-use and reliable personal storage solution is a clear example of how our strategy of opening our logistics network to third parties is going. Initial customer feedback shows that consumers are enthusiastic about this service and believe it can meet a storage market need. ”

Since 2016 JD has expanded the range of logistics services offered to third-party merchants

With over ten years of experience in developing its internal logistics capabilities, JD Logistics has gained the trust of both customers and companies, enabling the company to bring this new value-added service to the market.

In fact, since 2016, JD has expanded the range of logistics services offered to third-party merchants. With the company that continues to launch innovative initiatives such as archiving solutions, it is increasingly clear that JD’s logistic capabilities can benefit not only JD’s activities, but also a number of other sectors and traders.

Douyin Introduces The Reverse Search Function In Images

The company has revised its revenue target for 2019, in a range from 120 billion yuan ($ 16.8 billion) from a previous target set at the end of last year of 100 billion yuan

Douyin, a popular Chinese short video app known as TikTok outside of China, has introduced a reverse image search tool that allows some users to find in-video products such as clothing, which they can then purchase directly from within the app.

The move could help ByteDance, owner of Douyin, take advantage of the growing popularity of the video app, which has accumulated 320 million active users every day in July. The Beijing-based company has just revised its revenue target for 2019, in a range from 120 billion yuan ($ 16.8 billion) from a previous target set at the end of last year of 100 billion yuan, according to Reuters.

The function is only available for users selected on the Chinese version

The new function was identified by Chinese technology analyst Matthew Brennan, who showed the Twitter search tool for the first time last week. While watching a video clip of Chinese comedian Xiao Shenyang, other celebrity videos appeared after clicking on the circle icon on the right side of the screen. While Brennan moved the research area on Xiao’s trousers, similar apparel products appeared that could be purchased directly by users.

ByteDance has not commented on the news, but the description on the app page said that the reverse search function can be used to find other celebrity videos or videos of similar pets, based on still images, suggesting that the company is collecting identifiable data from its content that could potentially be used to generate advertising revenue.

The function is only available for users selected on the Chinese version of the app and it is not clear whether Douyin will make it available in the foreign market in the future. It is also not clear whether the platform is scanning videos that Douyin users have labelled as private.

Other companies have also used this technology, attracting however several criticisms on the privacy front

Supported by artificial intelligence algorithms, the technology behind the reverse image search is not new. The Google search engine offers the feature, but has raised privacy concerns, especially in the era of deepfakes.

In August, the Zao face exchange app, supported by Chinese social media developer Momo, became viral on social media but immediately sparked controversy over privacy issues. The growing concern for privacy related to facial recognition has led to Facebook’s decision to discontinue an automatic photo tagging option, according to Reuters.

China, Tourism Becomes Social With MaFengWo And Qyer

More and more Chinese organize trips independently, also thanks to platforms like MaFengWo and Qyer

More and more Chinese people travel abroad to enjoy the beauty of the outside world. It is expected that in 2021 there will be over 200 million Chinese tourists leaving the country.

Thanks to the popularity of the Internet and mobile phones – which allow greater freedom of information exchange in combination with a growing number of young, sophisticated and world-oriented Chinese consumers – independent travel has been increasingly common and preferable over traditional packages tourist.

This type of travel allows people to explore destinations in their own way; with their personalized programs, activities and deadlines that incorporate their personal preferences, habits and hobbies. In the service of this trend, there have been several platforms designed to help these free and independent travellers plan and book their trips in an easy and convenient way.

MaFengWo is also an OTA platform where independent bookings can be made

MaFengWo is a Chinese social media-travel platform, where users share or read detailed travel guides, reviews, tips and all kinds of information about a destination such as hotels, activities, weather, shopping, places of interest and more.

Considering that young Chinese seek and plan their journeys in strict advance, MaFengWo and its rich user-generated content is an important place to do so.

MaFengWo is also an OTA platform where users can book or make reservations for transport, hotels, commercials, catering, shopping and leisure, covering over 60,000 destinations worldwide. Since 2006 MaFengWo has helped 120,000,000 travelers a month and is considered the “travel Bible” of the younger generation.

In travel articles written by users you can find information about a destination, as well as suggestions, photos, suggested routes and personal comments provided by other travellers.

These articles are incredibly detailed, with pictures and instructions on how to make the most of a trip to the area where the article is concentrated. Before users make their final travel decision, they can use travel blogs on potential destinations and then make their travel decisions based on the life experiences of other travellers.

MaFengWo also offers the possibility of buying travel items

Furthermore, MaFengWo is also a shop where you can buy travel items, offering a fascinating range of travel products and services that cover everything you can think of. From hotel reservations to airport transfer services, transportation tickets, visas, SIM cards or other travel products; all in one website!

There are many other similar communities of content generated by small users in the Chinese market, but a well-known competitor in the tourist community category is Qyer. Founded in Germany in 2004 (now based in Beijing), it was originally a travel community of overseas Chinese who shared their experiences and suggestions on how to travel in Europe.

Over the years, the online community has evolved into a “single outbound travel platform”. Its products now include everything a traveller needs. Indeed, Qyer aims to make travel abroad more affordable and cheaper for Chinese tourists.

Among the main products are the online community, where the posts (which can contain up to 500 comments) are divided between articles on travel in various destinations and themed items, such as family trips, photography and cruises. QYER sees more than 6,000 new items added by traveler users every day.

Another product offered is the travel planning app, where users can spend less than a minute to get a travel plan, simply by entering the basic factors: city of departure and return, destinations, journey time and preferences for variables such as the mode of transport and the pace of travel.

Finally, an e-commerce sector is present. A platform designed to facilitate independent travel abroad, offering air tickets, tickets to scenic spots and other tourist attractions, visa services and so on.