{"id":11200,"date":"2022-11-07T13:30:43","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T13:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=11200"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:36:11","slug":"are-taobao-and-jd-being-replaced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/are-taobao-and-jd-being-replaced\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Taobao and JD being replaced?"},"content":{"rendered":"

China has always been a disruptor in the e-commerce and social commerce sectors. Now, platforms like Douyin and Xiaohongshu are disrupting established market leaders like Taobao and JD, writes Jack Porteous<\/strong> from Samarkand Global<\/strong><\/h2>\n

China is the world\u2019s leading e-commerce market, accounting for more than half of the online retail sales in 2021. With a population of 780 million digital consumers, e-commerce sales hit \u00a32.3 trillion.<\/p>\n

Chinese consumers are also changing faster than their peers in other markets. Consumers\u2019 purchasing behaviours are continuously in flux and that presents a constant challenge for international brands looking to engage with their customers. The rise of 232.68 million Gen Z\u2019ers as a driving consumer force is setting new trends in communicating with targeted customers.<\/p>\n

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China\u2019s cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) ecosystem has long been dominated by two major B2C platforms: Alibaba\u2019s Tmall Global and Tencent-backed JD Worldwide. Challengers have come and gone \u2013 examples include Kaola, ultimately acquired by Alibaba from Netease in 2019 and now reportedly down to just 20 staff, or smaller players like Secoo, whose rise and fall has been much talked about after a promising start and major IPO. The barriers to launch for international brands remain stubbornly high, and the core challenges include customer acquisition and the often long wait for profitability after launch.<\/p>\n

The intensification of these challenges and fiercer competition in a lower-growth environment, alongside cultural and socioeconomic factors, is leading to an enormous shift in CBEC towards a more diverse, multifaceted future. This can be referred to as \u2018decentralised e-commerce\u2019 \u2013 social commerce powered by networks of local tastemakers, taking place wherever consumers are spending their time.<\/p>\n