Pinduoduo and ByteDance Ltd., which operates Douyin, declined to comment. The majority of Douyin's sales last year were completed through platforms run by such competitors as Alibaba or JD.com Inc. Pinduoduo isn't profitable and has relied on subsidies for some of its growth. Still, analysts said the increasing pressure on Chinese tech companies to play fair could limit how quickly and aggressively Alibaba can react to new threats.Īlibaba's newest rivals face their own trials. The company was fined a record $2.8 billion in April.Īt the time, Alibaba said it accepted the penalty and vowed compliance. The enormous size, however, has put the company in the crosshairs of regulators, who have been going after China's tech giants.Įarlier this year, Beijing's top market regulator found that Alibaba had abused its market position to keep its merchants from selling on competing platforms. When asked about its initiatives to address competition, Alibaba referred to its past news releases and earnings statements.Īlibaba's revenue still dwarfs that of other players in Chinese e-commerce, and its enormous size continues to give it major advantages. ![]() "But now we're working hard on building all these different businesses, each with its own unique and compelling value proposition." Zhang said in August, referring to the company's flagship shopping platforms. "When we used to talk about marketplace-based core, it was Taobao and Tmall," Mr. In May, chief executive Daniel Zhang listed increased competition as one of the company's biggest obstacles of the past year and said any profit that exceeded last year's would be poured back into improving its e-commerce businesses. ![]() Making inroads against Alibaba have been rival Tencent Holdings Ltd., which is incorporating online stores into its ubiquitous WeChat social-messaging app Pinduoduo Inc., a six-year-old e-commerce app that has injected gamelike elements into shopping and drawn in bargain hunters with lower-priced goods and Douyin, TikTok's sister app in China, which is selling products through short videos and live-streaming with the help of its algorithms.Īlibaba has responded by investing more in areas such as content creation, live-streaming and discount goods. That trend has left Alibaba playing catch-up in some areas, and competitors have used the shift to gain a foothold in the world's largest online retail market.Īlibaba remains the leading platform in online shopping, but its share of China's retail e-commerce market has fallen to a projected 51% in 2021 from 78% in 2015, according to research firm eMarketer. The company founded by Jack Ma rose to become one of the world's biggest and most valuable businesses, using hard-knuckle tactics to muscle out challengers.Īs China's e-commerce industry has matured, consumers have started to embrace new ways of shopping that favor browsing and interaction over targeted product searches. ![]() BLOOMBERGĪlibaba Group Holding Ltd., challenged by Beijing's yearlong clampdown on private enterprise, is facing another problem: growing competition.įor more than 15 years, Alibaba was China's unassailable e-commerce champion. ![]() WeChat has become an e-commerce force, with its more than one billion users who can browse and buy goods without leaving the app.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |