Web2Asia

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Alibaba, Alipay, The Vatican, M-Commerce, and Weibo

Mon, 21 Apr 2014 11:01:00 +0000

Alibaba to Start Telecom Services in China

Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce group, will be launching Chinese telecom services in June. The company received China’s first mobile virtual network operating licenses late last year. The exact details of the services will remain under wraps, but it has been reported that Alibaba has coordinated with China’s major telecom companies – China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom – to offer the ultimate services to millions of mobile users. Alibaba is actually among 11 companies approved by Chinese regulators to operate virtual network in China.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Alipay Moves Beyond Alibaba with Rakuten

Last week, Rakuten, one of the main e-commerce players in Japan, started accepting Alipay payments, making life much easier for Chinese consumers to take advantage of the Japanese international marketplace.

Rakuten’s Japanese marketplace is massive, with 42,000 sellers, while its international one (Rakuten Global) is still relatively small, with about 10,000 sellers. At this moment of time, only about 250 sellers on Rakuten Global accept Alipay, but eventually all Rakuten sellers who ship to China will be accepting Alipay.

Source: China Topix

The Vatican to go digital

A Japanese IT firm will work in tandem with NTT Data in order to ‘digitize’ the Vatican Library which was founded in 1451, and contains more than 82000 manuscripts, some of which are 1800 years old. The first round of documents is set to take 4 years, and will only cover 3000 documents. At the speed at which things are being done now it will take more than 100 years to digitize everything. The first sets of documents are set to be online by the end of 2014 and the documents are expected take up 43 quadrillion bytes of storage space, and will be backed up in case files are accidentally deleted or corrupted. The initial 4-year phase is expected to cost around $25 million, but NTT Data are hoping that some of their expenses will be compensated by donations made through the library’s website.

Source: Mashable

M-Commerce in China flies

Mobile commerce, commonly known as M-Commerce is in full swing, and the statistics show it. Sales are set to exceed $51 billion by the end of this year, with an average of 50% growth over the next 2 years, exceeding $115 Billion by 2016. Year on year, M-Commerce has grown 165.4% since 2012, however the trend is expected to slow as the market saturates. 69% of Chinese consumers have purchased a product through their Smartphone’s, compared to only 46% in the US. In terms of online mobile platforms, Taobao accounts for 76.1% of the market, and interestingly Amazon only accounts for 0.6%. On the Taobao platform, more than 80% of the purchases are made through Smartphone’s, and purchases take on average 67 seconds quicker than PCs. All these stat’s go to show just how big the M-Commerce market is, and how quickly it’s developing. It will be interesting to watch the rest of the world to see if they will follow this trend.

Source: Resonance China

Weibo’s low profile IPO

Sina Weibo – a Chinese micro-blogging website and effectively a hybrid of Facebook and Twitter, listed on the NASDAQ on Friday. Weibo has 143.8 million active users, which is significantly less than twitter’s 241 million. Weibo’s IPO was relatively subdued and conservative and when the shares actually debuted they were at a mere $16.27. Only 16.8 million of its 20 million shares were subscribed to. After the days close however, the shares were up to $20.24, a 24% increase. Weibo is now valued at $3.4 billion, and will be an interesting share to watch as it marks yet another social media platform going public.

Source: Tech In Asia

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Online Shopping,

Tue, 15 Apr 2014 08:29:00 +0000

14% of Chinese Shop Online Everyday

According to a report created by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 14% of Chinese respondents shop online daily. Over 60% claim to shop online at least once a week, which is much higher than the global average of just 5% who shop online everyday and 21% every week. When it comes to mobile shopping, Chinese consumers ranked first, with 4% of respondents shopping via mobile everyday, 20% using it once a week, and 27% once a month. The global percentages are 2%, 7%, and 12%, respectively.

Source: China Internet Watch

Chinese online market revenue and mobile users increase exponentially

The Ministry of culture today released a report stating that the popularity of mobile Internet and more specifically online music increased remarkably. Market revenue of China’s online music business reached 7.41 Billion Yuan, an increase of 63.2% since 2012, while the online music market increased 140% to 4.36 Billion Yuan.

Of particular interest were the online user figures. The number of online users only increased by 4.6% to 450 million people, however the number of mobile music users grew 203% from 96 million to 291 million, highlighting the huge move towards mobile Internet usage. Although the report sounds promising there were still problems regarding network efficiency, which plagued the development of the music industry, but the Ministry of Culture has said they will focus on improving policies and regulations to progress the integrity and effectiveness of the system in order to promote continued prosperity and healthy development.

Source: Alibuybuy

China Overtakes the U.S. as the Biggest Online Spenders

The Chinese e-commerce industry is predicted to be worth $541 billion USD by the year 2015. In fact, 49% of the population made an online purchase last year, a figure that is meant to increase to 71% by 2017. The demographic of the Chinese online consumer is comprised primarily of younger people, with 60% of the consumers under the age of 30. They are also considered to be affluent – online spending is highest in China’s tier one cities, and those earning more than 5,000 RMB per month are likelier to make online purchases. The market is also dominated by mobile devices, with 464 million of its 591 million internet users opting to use their smartphones or mobile devices to surf the web.

Source: The Future of Commerce

LinkedIn attempts to enter Chinese Market

With LinkedIn making its entry into the Chinese market after many people were skeptical about the Western network getting over the countries great firewall, its greatest challenge lies in adapting to an entirely different culture. In comparison to the Western world, Chinese relationships are more private, and people keep their cards very close to their chest, which is the opposite of LinkedIn’s fundamental approach; publicly broadcasting one’s professional contacts.

Trying to change the mindset of an entire society will ultimately result in failure. LinkedIn is still in young in China, and is effectively seen as a startup but if it manages to adapt effectively and localize its use here, it may provide China’s young-up-and-comers with another professional social network in which to build relationships.

Source: Tech In Asia

Daily Digital Pulse of China: WeChat, Cache-Cache & B2C

Fri, 11 Apr 2014 06:34:00 +0000

WeChat adds image recognition feature which can benefit online-retailers

Since the release of the WeChat 5.0 version (launched in August last year) users could already learn more about a product like books or music albums by scanning the barcode on the cover or packaging and be redirected to the company website – and in some instances directly to the e-commerce sites for purchase.

This week WeChat released a new Image Recognition Feature. Now users no longer have to rely on barcodes but can simply scan a book cover and e.g. read reviews from Douban Book (a popular chinese platform for book ratings and reviews) or purchase the book directly from online retailer Dangdang.com. WeChat plans further enhancements to this service which is currently offered for free.

Source:Technode

Source:JingDaily

French Ready-To-Wear Brand Cache-Cache to accelerate it’s development in China E-Commerce.

As part of its development strategy in China, the French ready-to-wear brand Cache-Cache has decided to step on the accelerator for their investments in the Chinese e-commerce market. The brand has over 850 brick-and-mortar stores across the country and is already selling its products on Tmall. Cache-Cache is now considering to have its own platform of e-commerce to reclaim its online business in order to support its omni-channel strategy based on web-to-store. Online sales should allow the brand an annual growth of 30%.

Source: Les échos de la franchise

China’s B2C Industry Rapidly Gains Market Share

Despite both platform types growing at double-digit rates, it seems as though Chinese online consumers are increasingly turning towards business-to-consumer platforms over consumer-to-consumer ones to satisfy their online shopping desires. C2C platform sales accounted for nearly two-thirds of all Chinese online retail sales in 2013, but it has been predicted that the B2C sector would overtake the C2C one by 2017, as its growth rate is twice as fast. Why the rapid growth rate for B2C platforms? Shoppers have grown to prefer the higher quality and service of official flagship shops. It isn’t a matter of Taobao, China’s most popular C2C marketplace, performing poorly – it is simply due to the fact that there is more and more competition in an area where there wasn’t any for quite a while. The number of C2C e-tailers has actually decreased by 17.8% year on year from 2012 to 2013, and it is estimated to fall even further to just 9.18 million by the end of this year.

Source: iResearch China

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Mobile Internet

Thu, 10 Apr 2014 09:04:00 +0000

China’s Mobile Internet Industry

China’s Internet industry has taken a turn to focusing on monetizing the smart phone market. Companies are gradually shifting their businesses from PC to mobile due to high mobile phone penetration rates in the country. Mobile phone penetration is nearly at 100%, and the majority of the aforementioned commoditization is coming from the increasingly popular, lower-cost, domestically produced smart phones, particularly within rural areas. Monetization for the industry is primarily coming from mobile gaming, e-commerce, and new forms of mobile payments.

At the end of 2013, Chinese mobile phone users exceeded one billion, with over half of them being smart phone users. It has been estimated that the smart phone penetration rate in China will reach or even exceed 90% by the end of this year. Despite this prediction, foreign smart phone shipments to China in the 4^th quarter of 2013 decreased by 4.3%, quarter-on-quarter, the first drop since the 2^nd quarter of 2011. This is mostly because of the attractive prices of domestic brand phones, such as Lenovo, Xiaomi, and Coolpad, (which typically go for less than half the price of an Apple iPhone). The average purchase price of a smart phone in China actually dropped from 2,321 RMB in 2011 to 1,773 RMB (US$286) in 2013.

The availability of these new, affordable smart phones allows for residents of rural areas to be able to access the Internet for the first time. It has been reported that 62% of mobile Internet users earn less than 4,000 RMB per month, with migrant workers making up a significant part of this total. The Chinese government, however, has plans to help rural areas catch up to the more affluent cities by aiming to achieve 85% fixed broadband penetration and 95% 3G/4G user penetration by 2020.

With smart phone penetration on the rise, mobile e-commerce is growing rapidly. Online transactions in China reached 1.9 billion RMB in 2013, making up 7.8% of total retail sales in the country. The mobile shopping industry’s total transaction value grew by 165% to 168 billion RMB, nabbing 9% of the total online shopping industry, as compared to just 4.8% in 2012. It has been estimated that it will eventually reached one trillion RMB by 2017.

Besides smart phone penetration getting so high, what else is contributing to the growing rates of mobile shopping? The big e-commerce platforms are heavily promoting mobile shopping by providing discounts to those making purchases via their mobile devices. Also, people are increasingly choosing to spend the little free time they have to shopping through their mobile devices instead of stepping foot in shopping malls.

Source: Fidelity

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Jingdong

Wed, 09 Apr 2014 08:36:00 +0000

JD.com to Develop its O2O Model

Jingdong has signed with about 10,000 Chinese convenience stores to establish an innovative online-to-offline retail plan. These 10,000 convenience stores will cover 15 cities, and will include brands like Quik, Good Neighbors, Buddies, C&U, and Meijiya. The deals will let Chinese customers buy items online and have them delivered or be picked up at physical locations. It will also let them use online payment methods at the brick-and-mortar stores themselves.

Source: China Tech News

JD.com to take a Leap into the Chinese Virtual Communications Industry

JD.com will be launching JD Mobile this May, which will include both products and numbers. JD.com recently revealed the brand logo and a sample SIM card designed for the line. The new logo will have Joy, JD.com’s mascot dog on it, representing a link between the parent company and this new one.

Source: China Tech News

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Alibaba's Investment & Tmall

Mon, 31 Mar 2014 09:56:00 +0000

Why Foreign Brands Use Tmall

When considering selling their products in China, foreign companies simply cannot ignore the influence and significance that Tmall has on the market. The site attracts hundreds of millions of Chinese shoppers, a fact that should not be overlooked. Asos, having officially entered China a few months ago with a bit of a thud, has realized this and will finally be opening its official Tmall flagship store in April, offering a 50% off cardigan sweater to attract customers. Tmall, with over 2,000 foreign brands and 70,000 sellers in total, dominates 45% of the B2C e-commerce sales in China. Alibaba’s impending IPO, which is slated to be one of the biggest public offerings in U.S. history, has the potential to increase the platform’s exposure and allow it to more easily attract foreign brands. With a growing Chinese middle class comes the desire for more foreign goods.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Alibaba Invests $692 million in Chinese department store chain

Alibaba has invested $692 million USD in InTime Retail, which has 28 department stores and eight shopping malls across the nation. The deal will let Alipay users pay in-store using their mobile apps after syncing the app to virtual prepaid cards. Online changes will also occur. Tmall shoppers will be able to earn InTime member points at select stores, and InTime will ship merchandise to online buyers from their physical stores. Doing this will shorten delivery times in some areas, and will also widen the range of international fashion brands offered to Tmall customers.

Source: Tech In Asia

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Tencent, E-Payments, Alibaba & Jingdong

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 09:14:00 +0000

Tencent Invests in South Korean Mobile Game Company

Tencent has invested $500 million USD for a stake in South Korea’s CJ Games. CJ games develops both casual and more in-depth mobile RPG games. The casual ones are meant to be integrated with Korea’s KakaoTalk and its social gaming functions. When the deal is finalized, Tencent will own 28% of CJ Games. Not only does Tencent have the country’s most popular messaging app, WeChat, is is also China’s biggest gaming company. The deal could bring some of Korea’s games to China via WeChat.

Source: Tech In Asia

The Growth of China’s Electronic Payments is Going Strong

The vice president of Baidu has announced that Baidu will be establishing its own mobile game division by merging its Duokoo mobile game business with its 91 Wireless game business.

Source: Digital Journal

Taobao’s Foray into the Domestic Service Market

Taobao’s mobile app has launched a domestic services platform that connects customers with domestic service providers. This new feature is called “home life” and will initially only cover Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and 15 other cities. There are 70,000 regular housekeeping staff assigned to the platform. The service will be funded by Alipay and will allow patrons to rate the services afterwards.

Source: Women of China

Coolpad’s New E-commerce Strategy

Top smartphone producer ‘Coolpad’ has formed a strategic cooperation agreement with Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com. A procurement contract of CNY10 billion has been agreed and signed, with the smartphone producer looking to sell their products more directly to the Internet sector. Li Bin, executive vice president of Coolpad has boasted bookings of over 1,600 units of their e-commerce customized products on JD.com and has stated that the e-commerce channel has become an important link in the smartphone industrial chain. The future will see Coolpad enhancing its investments in the e-commerce sector with diversified strategies on other e-commerce platforms.

Source: China Tech News

Logistics Mobile App Gains Traction in China

A new type of express delivery model has appeared in Chengdu in China’s Sichuan province. Every person that downloads the app is able to become a tentative delivery person and be paid 10 to 30 Yuan for their services. It has brought about a new business model where everyone participates in express delivery. Regulations will be needed for its positive development considering the low barriers to entry. The idea is a combination of mobile Internet and peer to peer concepts. People can deliver the parcels en-route to their workplaces. The incentive for people to deliver the package safely is by freezing the worth of that package in the delivery person’s bank account. It is an innovative business model that uses modern day development by integrating idle traffic resources’, information and logistics flow.

Source: iResearch China

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Searched Content,

Tue, 25 Mar 2014 09:28:00 +0000

What Content Did Chinese Search Most In 2013?

A new report released by Baidu shows that in 2013, the top 5 most-searched contents were film&TV, commodity supply & demand, education, game and travel. The demand for education, travel, film & TV increased significantly in 2013. Baidu suggested webmasters paid attention to these field.When it comes to education webmasters may integrate information about professional examinations to provide one-stop service for users. In terms of course ware and recommendation, websites could segment users according to their vocation and demand, then provide them with specific information.Regarding the demand for travel, there are noteworthy differences for webmasters.The film &TV resources can be deeply integrated by relationship between films and actors. The content construction of information about film & TV is also important for webmasters.

Source: China Internet Watch

Alibaba’s Introduction of the ‘Cloud App’

Alibaba shifted up a gear against Amazon this week, with founder Jack Ma announcing the ‘Cloud App’ – a cloud service targeting the mobile user. Alibaba has moved quickly in this sector: February 24th 2014 saw an alliance between Alibaba and Neusoft (China’s biggest multinational IT service provider) to develop this cloud service. Amazon’s web service ‘AWS’ was launched in 2006 and has grown to be the global leader in cloud computing. Their dominance globally has led Amazon to entering their 10th market with confidence, and December 18th 2013 saw this entrance into the Chinese market, leading to both Ali Cloud and Tencent Cloud giving 40% to 50% discounts on their service. Although AWS is seen as invincible in the global market, the Chinese market may be a harder nut to crack - Alibaba will not give up without a fight.

Source: China Internet Watch

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Tencent, WeChat, Alibaba

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 08:28:00 +0000

Tencent Invests in Mobile E-Commerce Site for Low-Income Phone Users

Maimaibao, a mobile commerce retailer that caters specifically to low-income mobile phone users, has received an undisclosed amount of funding led by Tencent. How does Maimaibao specifically target such users? It does so through implementation of a WAP mobile website, which is accessible from Symbian and feature phones on 2G networks. A majority of Chinese people who use such phones generally live and work in places that don’t offer access to PCs and are people who cannot afford to buy more advanced smartphones. What is WAP? It is a simplified protocol that was used on some phones before HTML was supported, and is still occasionally used for simple tasks such as email, reading news, downloading music, and checking stock prices. Not many websites actually support WAP these days, however. Maimaibao was one of the pioneering Chinese companies to enter the mobile commerce industry, and its focus is still on WAP. This new round of funding will be used to create a new budget smartphone under the brand Big Q, which already has three available models, all of which drive traffic to Maimaibao’s store. Maimaibo sold 200,000 of the phones last year, and is working towards selling a million this year. Maimaibao also saw a turnover of 2 billion RMB last year, and reported and average order of 300 RMB.

Source: Tech In Asia

WeChat Reaches 355 million Monthly Active Users in Q4 2013

WeChat’s monthly active user numbers have soared to 355 million, a 121% year-over-year increase and 6% quarter-over-quarter. Typically, most other mobile services count simply logging in as an active action, whereas Tencent only counts either sending one message or making a transaction as one.

Source: Tech Node

Alibaba to expand global footprint

The battle for mobile messaging applications rages on. Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba invested heavily in WhatsApp killer Tango. With an investment of $215 million the 4-year old California-based messaging application Tango is valued at about $1 billion. Tango has over 200 million registered users spread across the US, Europe, The Middle East and Asia. Not only does the move help Alibaba pave its way to an upcoming and possibly the largest public offering of a Chinese company in the US, but also strengthens the company’s position in mobile. This expertise might come in handy, as last year Alibaba launched its messenger Laiwang to compete with Tencent’s WeChat. Just like WeChat, Tango is more than just a messenger. It’s also a content platform with video, social and gaming. Therefor Tango could contribute to further overseas expansion of Alibaba’s online commerce business.

Source: Forbes

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Online Food Ordering & Smart Devices

Thu, 13 Mar 2014 09:35:00 +0000

Ordering Food is China’s Most Popular Offline-to-Online Activity

Many restaurants have been taking advantage of the Internet by allowing customers to order their food online via computers and smartphones. Various online food ordering services used different marketing initiatives, such as giving subsidies to restaurants and catering companies and announcing special offers and giveaways to customers. Yi Tao Shi, one of the major online food ordering companies, has 300 food delivery employees all around the country. The even bigger E Le Ma has established 12 branches throughout the nation. So how do these companies make profits? Typically from charging advertising fees from restaurants and commission fees from restaurant orders and fees collected from food delivery.

Source: Want China Times

China’s 700 Million Smart Devices

China’s population collectively owns 700 million smart devices, only 59% of which were bought to replace a consumers’ previous smart phone or tablet. This means that nearly have of the country’s smart devices were first-time purchases. We can see that more and more Chinese citizens are moving toward the use of smart devices. Devices priced above $500 USD make up 27% of the total, and users of these higher-end devices have a more diverse range of needs, whereas those who use devices that are $150 or less tend to use their devices for games more so than anything else. The top 10 most popular Android devices are completely comprised of Samsung and Xiaomi products. While 4G is still growing, it has been predicted that the service won’t truly take off until next year. The path to success for all such devices, however, seems to be socialization of apps. 55% of Chinese market apps provide links to Chinese social networking services and the volume of app content sharing to social network platforms per mobile Internet user per day has tripled in the past 6 months.

Source: Tech In Asia

Daily Digital Pulse of China: E-Commerce, Alibaba & Tencent

Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:40:00 +0000

Asia’s Half-Trillion Dollar E-Commerce Market

Go Globe’s new infographic on e-commerce in Asia is stunning in two ways. Visually, it’s very appealing. What’s more, the information it contains is pretty mind-blowing as well. Some highlights on the Chinese side of things are as follows.

China’s e-commerce spending is double that of Japan. It is projected that Chinese online shoppers will spend $274.5 billion in 2014, as compared to just $127 billion in Japan.
60% of online spending in Asia is done by Chinese consumers.
74% of Chinese mobile phone users utilize their devices for product price comparisons and reviews, as compared to just 43% for the global average.

Source: Go Globe

Alibaba Aqcuires a Majority Stake in ChinaVision Media for $804 Million

Alibaba has acquired 60% of ChinaVision Media, a company that provides a myriad of media-related services, such as newspapers, movies, mobile content, television program promotions, artist management, and more. The company directly invests in movies as well as licensing content from third-party content providers. Alibaba has been developing Aliyun OS, which is an Android-based operating system for smartphones and smart TVs. The OS on its own doesn’t seem to be enough to attract users, however, so investing in the content that ChinaVision owns might make it so.

Source: Tech Node

Alibaba Works Hard to Sell U.S. Brands in China

The Internet giant will be offering U.S. companies various methods to get their products into China, including via its Alipay payments subsidiary and special shipping methods. ChannelAdvisor, a company that advises other companies with their e-commerce strategy, has teamed up with Alibaba to help U.S. companies easily sell to China using its software. The Chinese generally have a perception that imported goods are better than their domestic counterparts, so this is a very smart move on Alibaba’s part. Alibaba will soon be introducing shipping centers in the U.S. to handle proper packaging, taxes, and other fees that might stand in the way of U.S. companies wanting to sell to China.

Source: Wallstreet Journal

Tencent’s New Digital Credit Card

Tencent is now joining the digital credit card game and will be offering its first batch of 1 million digital credit cards on WeChat with China CITIC bank and insurance company Zhong An. Within WeChat, users can enter the My Bankcard interface and directly apply for the digital credit card. Alipay’s got a similar thing going, so what are the differences and similarities between the two cards?

Both cards will support online and mobile payments, but the WeChat credit card will also allow users to make payments in certain physical stores by scanning QR codes.
Both cards will save users the hassle of keeping track of physical credit cards.
Alipay Wallet’s credit line will start at 200 yuan, while WeChat’s service is broken down into three levels of 50 yuan, 200 yuan, and 1,000 to 5,000 yuan, depending on credibility of users. Also, WeChat will offer a 50 day interest-free period and will not charge any annual fees.

Source: Tech Node

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Tmall, WeChat, Dang Dang, Yihaodian, Jingdong

Mon, 10 Mar 2014 02:56:00 +0000

Promotion for U.S. Pork Goes Live on Tmall

A flagship store has opened on Tmall this week, one that guarantees delivery of eight U.S. pork items within 24-48 hours. The site is also offering discounts of up to 50% off during a seven-day sale celebrating its grand opening. The new site brought in more than 400,000 visitors within the first few hours of business. There was even a draw organized by the USMEF giving away a sample of American pork, which received 2,000 applications in the first hour. The pork products are sourced from three U.S. processors and are sold through three specialized distributors who deliver the frozen products in under 48 hours. The site is providing a wealth of information on U.S. pork products, including an informational video on the production of pork in the U.S. The distributors are also promising product quality buy providing a ten-fold money back guarantee. The USMEF has been working for a year to build up its online sales potential. Initial efforts were focused on assisting online vendors with ideas and expertise in order to better packaging so the geographical footprint of shipments could grow.

Source: KTIC Radio/a>

WeChat in Midst of Testing POS Payment

It has been claimed that WeChat will launch its POS payment system on March 22 o fthis year. Its POS system will consist of customized POS machine and WeChat payment, targeting offline store payment. When a customer is purchasing goods, the special WeChat POS machine will generate a QR code to be scanned and paid with WeChat payment. This move is yet another push for WeChat’s offline to online integration plans and to enter the retail payment market.

Source: China Internet Watch

Dangdang and Yihaodian Partner Up

Dangdang, China’s largest online book retailer, and Yihaodian, one of China’s major online supermarkets, have teamed up and will launch flagship channels on each other’s platforms. Both of the stores will offer the same products, pricing, logistics, and customer service that are already available on each respective website. Knowing all this, why the partnership, then? The companies can then enrich the product selections available to their customers.

Source: Want China Times

Tencent to Transfer Its E-Commerce Business to JD.com

Tencent will be transferring its e-commerce belongings, Yixun Logistics Company Ltd. and its two marketplaces, Paipai and QQ Wanggou, to JD.com. Tencent will also be buying 15% of JD’s outstanding ordinary shares for $214 million before JD’s IPO, and 5% after it.

Source:Tech Node

Tencent Offering Health Insurance

Tencent has teamed up with Taikang Life to offer WeChat users health insurance. The service will let users in the 18-39 age group pay one yuan for 1000 yuan worth of yearly protection, or 300 yuan for those aged 40-49. If a user shares the service or asks for a donation of one yuan, they’ll get an additional 1000 or 3000 yuan. The coverage is capped at 10,000 yuan and is limited to malignant tumors. This move by Tencent shows a growing trend for Internet companies to revolutionize other sectors.

Source:iResearch China

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Tencent, Mobile Messaging Apps, Online Video Sites

Wed, 05 Mar 2014 10:03:00 +0000

Tencent Opens Its Payment Service to All Businesses

Tencent has done something big for its popular mobile messaging app, WeChat. It has added support for any brand to allow their consumers to make purchases or buy services within the app itself. It also works for in-store payments. With the app’s ubiquitous nature, this feature is sure to bring more brands to WeChat and more users to its payment feature.

Source:Tech In Asia

Analyzing China’s Top Mobile Messenger Apps

Tencent’s WeChat and QQ have all the other competitors beat by quite a bit, with QQ’s 325.71 million active users and WeChat’s 295.712 million. Another point to note is that male usage outnumbers female usage by quite a bit, as males make up 61.69% of the demographic and females make up the rest. Users of such apps are predominantly in the 35 or below age group and from medium and low income backgrounds. When considering occupation, workers/service workers were the primary group, followed by public institution leaders and staff, and after that, students.

Source:China Internet Watch

An Overview of China’s Online Video Market during Q4 2013

China’s online video market reached 12.81 billion RMB, with a 41.9% year-on-year increase. That market is expected to maintain rapid growth and reach 36.6 billion RMB by 2017. What’s contributing significantly to these revenues is the fact that mobile client commercialization is increasing, and thus, bringing copyrighted content (television shows and sporting events) to such online video sites. Revenues from advertising accounted for 75% percent of total revenue in 2013. This percentage is expected to increase to about 77.1% in 2017. The monthly online video user coverage of PC web pages and PC clients was 460 million and 340 million respectively in November of 2013. The user scale continues to grow remain at a stable, steady rate. In contrast, the number of users of mobile video apps reached 170 million in November of 2013, up a staggering 72.9% compared to the number of users in December 2012.

Source:China Internet Watch

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Alipay, Alibaba & Luxury E-Commerce

Mon, 03 Mar 2014 09:42:00 +0000

Alipay Discontinues WeChat’s API Payment Gateway

Not long ago, Alipay announced that it would shut down the application programming interface (API) payment gateway for Tencent’s WeChat public accounts platform, which would cause a bit of grief to WeChat in the short term, as it is still trying to establish its merchant groups. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened in the Chinese e-commerce world, however. In 2004, eBay tried to block Alibaba’s Taobao, but Taobao offered free listings to sellers and introduced website features created in the best interests of local consumers. Also, in 2008, Taobao blocked the search service of Baidu. This type of ‘blocking’ has become the norm in China’s internet industry and has resulted in fragmented user experience for Chinese consumers.

Source:Want China TImes

Alibaba Teams Up with Retail Chain to Obtain Edge in O2O Market

Alibaba recently announced a joint campaign between Taobao’s mobile operations and five retail chain operators for the upcoming March 8th shopping festival. A trial service will be introduced at one Intime City mall in Hangzhou, allowing users to pay for their purchases by mobile phones rather than at the till. An Intime executive has said that e-commerce must be embraced by retailers. The partnership will let consumers consumers can connect online shopping options and those in the real world so that they can also make purchases at brick-and-mortar stores. Alibaba also plans to work with operators in marketing, traffic, member database, and payment services. Alipay will also offer discounts and bargains to users of its e-wallet mobile payment services at stores of seven convenience store chains.

Source:Want China Times

Alipay Now the Largest Mobile Payments Platform in the World

The number of Alipay users reached 300 million at the end of 2013 and have made 12.5 billion payments via the service. Over 2.78 billion of these payments were made through Alipay’s mobile service, totaling 900 billion RMB ($150 billion USD). Total mobile payments through Square and Paypal equaled to about ($50 billion USD).

Source:China Internet Watch

5 Things You Need to Know about the Habits of China’s Luxury E-Commerce Shoppers

The Chinese people have quickly shifted a bulk of their shopping time and money to the Internet, and luxury retailers are having a difficult time keeping up. Traditionally, luxury brands have relied on their in-store service. They have spent much of their time focusing on opening physical retail stores rather than on Internet strategies and have not anticipated such a swift switch by Chinese consumers to e-commerce. What are the most notable facts about China’s online luxury consumers. They’re most motivated by price. 74% of respondents say that lower prices were the main reason they buy their luxury goods online, while price is the most common product information sought online, with 79% of users searching for it. 55% of consumers also liked the fact that online shopping is less time-consuming. The main concern is still the possibility of buying fake goods, but consumers also mostly just want to be able to try items on. 78% worry about fakes. High-end luxury e-tailers, however, have high enough price points to offer special services that allow couriers to wait for the client to try the item on. They use multiple devices for online shopping. Villet of Glamour Sales has stated that about 50% of their business is done on non-PC platforms. More than 50% of respondents say they would use a smartphone for luxury e-shopping, while more than 30% would use a tablet. Endorsements by people they trust are of more importance than those by celebrities. When learning about luxury products, people tend to trust social media reviews the most, while friends’ recommendations and word-of-mouth came in a close second. The opinions of celebrities and key opinion leaders are still important, but rank far below the aforementioned sources. Payment methods are changing quickly. Cash on delivery used to be the most widely used form of payment, but online payment systems have quickly come to the forefront.

Source:Jing Daily

China Is Now The Worlds Largest Trade Nation

Chinas foreign trade volume reached $4.16 trillion in 2013, making it the largest trade nation in the world, according to the World Trade Organization Secretariat. In 1978 Chinas trade volume was just US$20.6billion, makings its growth per year since then at 16.4%. The diversification in trade partners is clear, as China trades less with traditional Europe and US, and more with ASEAN countries closer in proximity, and emerging markets. The structure of Chinas trade is now fully optimized with the export of electronics and labour intensive goods and the import of consumer goods. Chinas achievements in trade are a result of the joint effort between government and key market players, as well as the implementation of the country’s structural reforms and opening up. In 1978 Chinas per capita GDP was US$148 and in 2013 it stood at US$6,600, so dramatic changes have taken place in the country. There is now pressure on China to change its model from “high quantity, low price” to a model which places more emphasis on quality and service. This will enable the country to remain competitive into the future.

Source:Want China Times

China Unicom Gains 3G Users, While China Telecom Lose Users

China Unicom gained 3.869million new 3G users during January, reaching a total user group of 126.47 million people. During the month of January China Unicom gained 3.123 million mobile users. China telecom on the other hand lost 80,000 mobile users in the same period, and the number of its total mobile users decreased 184.78 million. China Telecoms 3G users increased by 30,000 to 103.14million. China Telecom put down its lost in customers to its competitor Unicom’s introduction of 3G LTE (Long term evolution) services and the promotions that went with it. China Telecom launched its LTE services mid-February; long after people had already switched to their competitor Unicom. While China Unicom does not have as many customers overall as China Telecom, Unicom’s gains are considerable for the size and development of their company.

Source:China Tech News

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Ctrip, WeChat, Jingdong, Social Media, Alibaba & Mobile Shopping

Fri, 28 Feb 2014 03:16:00 +0000

Ctrip to Implement WeChat Payment Service for Purchasing Attraction Tickets

Users of this service will soon be able to buy train tickets, group-buy deals, gifts cards, and more. Unlike purchases for flight tickets, hotels, and other similar travel-related necessities, attraction tickets are more likely to purchased via mobile devices as they require smaller amounts of money and are usually needed during the actual time of travel. Purchases made through this WeChat payment system will be eligible for discounts of 20%-30%, while ordering through the proprietary Ctrip mobile app will allow users to receive a 5 RMB cash reward.

Source:Huaxia

Tencent Likely to Buy Stake in Jingdong

Tencent has reportedly hired Barclays to advise on the matter of acquiring a part of JD.com, China’s second largest B2C e-commerce marketplace. This move will afford Tencent more leverage in competing in its multi-faceted rivalry with Alibaba, China’s other Internet giant.

Source:eBrun

China’s Social Media Landscape for 2014

For every Western social site or app, there seems to be a Chinese counterpart. Typically, these Chinese-developed sites are in response to things blocked by the Great Firewall. In any case, the Chinese social media scene is a much different animal to that of the West, and the accompanying infographic may help to demystify things just a bit. Some highlights of the graphic are as follows:

WhatsApp is not often used in China. Its counterpart, WeChat, is the main messaging app used by what feels like the entire Chinese population.
Youtube is blocked, but there is a wide array of video services to choose from, the most popular ones being Youku and Sohu. These sites often contain licensed telvision shows and movies.
Even when the Great Firewall isn’t in the way, Chinese apps still seem to be more popular, as is the case with WhatsApp, Instagram, and Vine.

Source:Tech In Asia

Alibaba’s Mobile Taobao 3.8 Life Festival

Riding on the coat tails of its hugely successful Double 11 Shopping Festival, Alibaba has developed a mobile-centric version to take place on March 8th. The “festival” will feature discounts for merchandise, meals, movies, and more when customers shop via Alibaba’s Taobao mobile app. To take advantage of such discounts, consumers will have to pre-order goods and services in the days prior to March 8, when they can redeem their purchases. On 11.11, 21% of purchases were made via mobile devices. The Taobao mobile app now has over 400 million users, and Alibaba is making a concerted effort capitalize on the ever-increasing usage of mobile devices to shop for products.

Source:iFeng

Chinese Consumers Are the Most Avid Mobile Shoppers

Over half (54.9%) of Chinese consumers use their mobiles to shop, the highest percentage in the Asia-Pacific region. Other countries that follow closely behind are Thailand, Korea, India, and Indonesia. Why the growing number of mobile shoppers? The top reasons stated were convenience, the ability to shop whilst on-the-go, and the increasing number of apps that make it easier to shop in this manner. Clothing and fashion accessories came in first as the most bought items via mobile, followed by apps and music. The rise of clothing and accessories to the top of the list indicates a strong shift by sellers to enrich the mobile experience for their customers and making things more convenient. Almost 100% of Chinese respondents have said that they’ve bought at least one thing online in the past 3 months. One main point of consideration, however, is security, with 85.3% of the Asia-Pacific respondents citing that as a main concern.

Source:Retail In Asia

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Baidu, Jingdong, Mobile Penetration, LinkedIn & Mobile Games

Thu, 27 Feb 2014 08:19:00 +0000

Baidu Continues to Obtain More Acquisitions in 2014

Despite a 50.3% rise in revenues year-on-year, net profits for Baidu dropped 0.4% during the last quarter. Most of this dip can be attributed to a veritable acquisition sprees that the other two Chinese Internet giants (Alibaba and Tencent) went on last year. In the past year, Baidu bought 91 Wireless, an Android app store, Nuomi, a group-buy site, a video portal, and Zongheng, and e-bookstore. 20% of Baidu’s total revenues, however, came from mobile, as it runs the fourth most popular android app store in China.

Source: Tech In Asia

Jingdong Interested in the Virtual Credit Card Market

As we mentioned previously, JD.com has established its own virtual credit line for its customers, with much cheaper rates than traditional banks. How can the platform be able to charge so much less? It can do so because of the enormous amounts of shopping records that it has collected over time. For example, if a customer regularly buys maternity and baby products, that customer is more likely to have a family and stable income, thus resulting in personal credit. The question that now arises is: Will Jingdong’s credit service be able to replace some small credit cards? Some finance experts seem to think that it is indeed possible. However, what might be the biggest obstacle in JD’s way is the other Internet giants who are also trying to become major financial players.

Source: iResearch China

LinkedIn has Launched the Chinese Localized Version of Its Site

LinkedIn launched the beta version of its site on February 25th, naming it “Ling Ying.” Learning from the previous in-China failures of other Internet giants like Google and Ebay, LinkedIn built an entirely new model to take on the Chinese demographic. LinkedIn actually established a joint venture in China with Sequoia China and China Broadband Capital instead of simply setting up a branch company in the country. With the help of local companies, LinkedIn China could more easily operate in a Chinese manner.

Source: China Internet Watch

E-Commerce Goes Rural

Chinese-developed online games generated revenues of $1.82 billion USD overseas in 2013, an increase of 219.3% from the year prior. The growth was mainly caused by mobile games. In Taiwan, 5 out of the 10 most popular mobile games are from mainland China, as is the case in Vietnam. Asian countries are the most important target markets for Chinese game development firms, as cultural differences keep Chinese games from rising to the top in American and European markets. Apparently, Asian gamers prefer their games to contain more verbal information, while Western players prefer something a bit cleaner.

Source: iResearch China

China has the Highest Mobile Penetration on the Planet

On average, the global mobile Internet penetration rate is 65%, whilst the percentage for China is even higher at 83%. In addition, China also has the highest tablet Internet penetration as well, reaching 39% in Q4 2013.

Source: China Internet Watch

Daily Digital Pulse of China: WeChat, Money Rewards & Weibo Record

Thu, 20 Feb 2014 08:43:00 +0000

Record: Over 800K Weibo posts first minute of year of the horse

More than 34 million Weibo users interacted during the Spring Festival Gala and posts referring to the festival reached 45.41 million in a little more than four hours. It was, however, in the first minute of the New Year of the horse that the new record was set. 863 408 posts were published – compared to the previous year, when 808 298 posts reached the Weibo web. The first day of this year’s Chinese Spring Festival took place on the 31st of January.

Source: Xinua Net

Taobao will reward users who discover "hacker loopholes" with 50K RMB

A loophole that could be used to hack accounts was discovered on E-commerce site Taobao. Through the loophole hackers would be able to gain access of all sorts of information including account balances, transaction records, shipping addresses and other sensitive private details. The vulnerability has supposedly been fixed, but users still worry that the privacy hazard will trigger a new wave of security threats. Taobao officials insist on having eliminated eventual risks and promise to honor alarming users who notifies the company about any future breaches with 50 000 yuan straight from the company’s reward fund.

Source: News 163

Tencent takes 20% stakes of daily deals-app Dianping

Tencent has announced that they are going to take a 20 percent stake in Dianping, the Chinese listings portal that also offer daily deals. This partnership will invite a lot of Dianping content (consumer reviews, online restaurant reservations and take-out ordering services) to Tencent’s two giant social networks; WeChat and QQ. WeChat is already covering mobile payments, taxi- and cinema bookings – which will make it an even stronger E-commerce platform. Alibaba might have to step it up if they want Alipay to remain China’s top e-wallet service.

Source: Finance iFeng

Alibaba Integrates Hong Kong’s Octopus Card

If you’ve ever visited or lived in Hong Kong, you already know how ubiquitous and essential the contactless smart card is. Hong Kongers are hyper-efficient, and with over 95% of the SAR’s population using it to speed up various daily necessities like public transportation, convenience store transactions, buying food at popular fast food restaurants, and even school attendance, it’s safe to say that the Octopus card is absolutely integral to the lifestyle. Clearly, the people at Alibaba have realized this and are taking the opportunity to capitalize on that fact. It will soon be possible for Hong Kong residents to use their Octopus cards for shopping on Taobao, making the activity a matter of simply using their mobile Octopus apps to scan codes on Taobao. This marks a big step for Alibaba in terms of international expansion, as most of its business still happens in the mainland.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Mobile: China aims for 50 million 4G subscribers by the end of 2014

China’s Department of Communications Development announced that commercial 4G services will be established in more than 300 cities by the end of the year. Constructing the relatively new Chinese network, which was switched on in mid-December, will take place during two phases in 2014. Ultimately resulting in about 500 000 base stations throughout the country, and between 30 to 50 million 4G subscribers. 30M being the minimum goal and 50M being the aim. China had around 417 million 3G subscribers at the end of 2013.

Source: Nandu

Daily Digital Pulse of China: E-Payment, Digital Advertising, International Retailers & WeChat

Wed, 19 Feb 2014 10:17:00 +0000

E-payment business grows rapidly 2013

With 25.78 billion online orders and a turnover of 1.075 trillion yuan, Chinese E-payment business went up 27,40% compared to the previous year, according to data released by People’s Bank of China. E-payment includes three categories of payment services – online payment, mobile payment and phone payment. The turnover of the complete Chinese mobile payment industry rocketed to 9,64 trillion yuan ($1.59 trillion), meaning a growth of 317%.

Source: Tech Node

8 Facts about digital advertising in China

Online shopping is one of China’s highest growth categories. In 2011 it had a growth of 30%, compared to 50% last year.
70% of China’s more than half a billion internet users are first-time users surfing the Web on a mobile device.
The Chinese digital market will be larger than its TV market this year.
The money spent on social media ads will grow faster than any other of the digital sub-segments. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will be up 67,6% by 2018.
Mobile social will make up more than 10% of the Chinese digital market 2018.
The growth of mobile usage leads to larger digital ad revenues. Chinese mobile-based advertising comprises 10% of digital ad revenues and 3.5% of the total ad revenues.
After the U.S., China has the largest search advertising market in the world. Top five advertisers in China 2013 are P&G, China Mobile, Volkswagen, L’Oreal, & 360Buy.
The most popular online activity is instant messaging (85%)

Source: Clickz

International retailers struggle online

Fast-fashion retailers expanded at a faster rate than luxury retailers in China last year. Companies like Zara, H&M and C&A opened more stores than planned, while 65 percent of the luxury retailers did not reach the expansion goal. However, international retailers are not doing a great job online, where domestic operators are dominating. The international retailers struggle with the Chinese online shopping for various reasons. According to a survey, made by KnightFrank, a few of the factors include difficulties of finding good quality sites, new policies on anti-corruption or a change in strategy for internal reasons. Domestic online operators account for circa 50 percent of the internet commerce, while international retailers represent less than 3 percent of the online market share. to know their customers long after they leave their stores.

Source: Retail In Asia

Luxury brands team up with WeChat for increased online presence in China

German luxury car manufacturer BMW launched a campaign on both WeChat and Weibo for the Lantern Festival (15th day of Chinese New Year). The brand posted a picture of a riddle written on a red lantern and asked followers to submit the correct answer. Burberry also engaged in a digital partnership with WeChat to strengthen their online position in China. The campaign lets WeChat users unlock exclusive audio content from senior members of the Burberry design team, as well as receiving behind the scenes footage from London Fashion Week. The digital innovation partnership is supposed to engage the Chinese consumer base and further establish Burberry on the growing international platform.

Source: Campaign Live

New rules forces Chinese E-sites to offer 7-day product returns

No more hustle without trouble. Starting March 15 all E-commerce sites must offer hassle-free seven-day product returns to their customers. The new regulation comes from China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) and includes all items except perishable or virtual products like food, software and digital downloads. The new legislation is a positive step for consumer rights, although buyers still need to pay for the return mail fee. Obviously, all returned products need to be undamaged, and mailing time is not included in the seven-day period. Companies like Alibaba have prompted for better consumer conditions the last years in order to set themselves apart from rival sites. They will probably gain from the new rules since smaller companies have not prepared for the policy.

Source: Tech In Asia

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Luxury Shoppers, Tencent & Mobile Devices

Wed, 26 Feb 2014 09:36:00 +0000

China E-Commerce

Tencent’s Video App Reach 160 million Views on Valentine’s Day

Tencent’s vine-like video sharing app, Weishi, had over 160 million views on Valentine’s Day. The app allows users to make 8-second video snippets with options to add tunes and themes to the recorded content. On Valentine it had been prepped with romantical themes, such as writing “kiss” or “love” in the corner of the screen. Weishi can be shared on any Chinese SNS, but work best as embedded media in WeChat, QQ and Tencent Weibo.

Source: Tech In Asia

China E-Commerce

Cheap phones Drive E-commerce Growth In Smaller Cities

The low priced, high-speed smartphones are causing international brands to reconsider their market strategies in China. Cheap mobile devices have allowed new customers in lower-tier cities to enter the E-commerce arena, and they are pushing an explosive growth. Instead of investing in real estate in order to set up retail storefronts, international brands are able to connect and develop an entire new customer base online. If the current inflow continues McKinsey Global Institute predicts that Chinese online revenue could generate $650 billion in by 2020 since there are still a lot of foreign retailers not yet present in China.

Source: Red Luxury

China E-Commerce

Chinese Luxury Shoppers Increase Abroad

More Chinese than ever went abroad in 2013, many of them with crave for luxury products. Last year, shoppers from China accounted for over one-third of the luxury purchases in Western Europe. Chinese tourist dedicated 33% of their travel budget to shopping alone. No wonder they are the world’s top spenders. According to report “Serving the Global Chinese Customer”, Chinese consumers currently make more than 60% of their luxury transactions outside China. Brands that want to get a piece of the action therefore needs to do their best to keep the luxury shoppers on mainland. Especially since this number will increase rapidly in the future, currently only 5% of all Chinese nationals owns a passport.

Source: Jing Daily

China E-Commerce

Mobile Devices Pushing Online Luxury Shopping

Driven by consumers desire for convenience, mobile devices are driving China’s online luxury shopping, according to the new survey “Chinas Connected Consumers”. The study covered more than 10 000 customers that had bought premium or luxury products in the past 12 months. Around 60% of the applicants said they use smartphones everyday to buy or search for information on luxury goods. About 30% used tablets. Female consumers were bigger fans of mobile shopping than males, which mostly base their reliance on user reviews and social media, the study concluded.

Source: Shanghai Daily

China E-Commerce

Tencent Enter Co-op Agreement With Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola and Tencent have decided to work together on a strategic partnership agreement. Coca-Cola plan to invest hundred million dollars worth of resources in Tencents online shopping services, including 990 million coke bottles and 27 000 units of the limited and customized Coca-Cola Samsung. Tencent’s online shopping services will also offer a 75% sale on about 50 000 products. The campaign is scheduled to start March 3rd.

Source: Ebrun

Daily Digital Pulse of China: Legal feuds, IPO's & China's LinkedIn

Tue, 25 Feb 2014 05:40:00 +0000

China E-Commerce

Over 100 Million Alipay Payments During Spring Festival

Over 100 million Alipay payments were made during the seven-day holiday of 2014 Spring Festival, 52% of these were mobile. Meanwhile Alibaba announced that the real-name users of Alipay approached 300 million by the end of 2013, with more than 100 million users using the mobile service for most of payments. Altogether subscribers made 12.5 billion payments during 2013, totaling over CNY900 billion. Data also revealed that 11.34 million people paid cell phone bills using Alipay Wallet, more than 1.5 million paid cab fares via Alipay and about CNY200 million was handed out in digital red envelopes during the seven day festival.

Source: China Internet Watch

China E-Commerce

Tencent Win 3-year Long Legal Battle Against Qihoo 360

Qihoo 360, an anti-virus software developer, was ordered by The Supreme People’s Court on Monday to pay five million Yuan (about $800 000) to Tencent Holding. This is the result of a long spun legal feud, dating back to November 2010, when Tencent discovered that Q360 provided tools to help QQ-users change the operating mode of QQ software. According to Qihoo, they did this in order to promote their security software and increase market competitiveness. Q360 also said that Tencent have been abusing its market dominance to maintain monopoly. Currently Tencent has around 816 million active QQ users monthly while Qihoo 360 has about 465 million PC users a month.

Source: Xinua Net

China E-Commerce

Sina Announce 42% Increase of Net Revenue in 4Q13

Sina corp. released their result from 2013’s fourth quarter, showing a net revenue of $197 million (an increase of 42% compared to the same period last year). Advertising revenues were $160.1 million (45% increase from a year earlier) and non-advertising revenues amounted to $36.9 million (30% increase over the same period last year). The total net revenue landed on $665.1 million (26% increase), advertising revenues were $526.5 million (28% increase) and non-ad revenues ended up at $138.6 million (19% increase).

Source: Tech Sina

China E-Commerce

Sina Plans U.S. IPO for Weibo

Sina announced plans to raise $500 million in a second quarter U.S. initial public offering of subsidiary micro blog platform Weibo. Sina, which is already listed in the U.S, could get a boost from e-commerce giant Alibaba Group if the IPO takes place. Currently Alibaba holds 18% in Weibo, but have hinted of an increase to 30% in the event of an American IPO. The details of any future investments related to the U.S. IPO have not been released.

Source: Market Watch

China E-Commerce

China launches LinkedIn

The beta version of Chinese LinkedIn has gone live. Under the name Ling Ying (领英), meaning leading and elite, the site was launched with invitation-only registration. Ling Ying has been added into the latest version of WeChat, allowing subscribers to show their LinkedIn on profile pages. Officials have also said that other SNS-channels (obviously not Twitter and Facebook) such as Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo will be integrated into the Chinese version. The social discussion page normally found on LinkedIn have however been removed in China due to censorship issues.

Source: Do News