Baidu completed a strategic investment in a Hong Kong-listed retail technology solution company Youzan last month, with a transaction value of approximately US$30 million. Youzan is known for its e-commerce solutions widely used by WeChat sellers (Weishang). Prior to this round of investment, Baidu and Youzan announced their partnership at the AI Developers Conference in […]
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Ad spending in China dropped 8.8% in first half of 2019
The total rate card ad spending in China declined by 8.8% YoY in the first half of 2019 (H1 2019) according to CTR. Traditional media lost 12.8% of ad revenueS from a year ago. Only food and transportation of the top 10 industries increased their ad spending. Ad Spending Change by Quarter 2016-Q2 2019 Ad […]
Top mobile applications in China by total time spent in Jun 2019
Instant messaging mobile apps take a significant chunk of China internet users’ time spent, accounting for 14.5%, followed by online video, short video, and online music. Mobile App Usage Time Distribution Two peak time periods for short video apps are around 12 pm, and 8 pm-10 pm, according to data from China Telecom. For online […]
Ingredients to win omnichannel retail in China
For all retailers and manufacturers around the world, the big question is always the same: “how do we grow when, globally, volumes are sluggish?” If we look exclusively at trade aspects, the past years have seen the decline of larger formats, the rise of value-for-money models, the boom of e-commerce, and cannibalization between channels. This […]
Alibaba’s B2B retail platform Ling Shou Tong has reached 1.3 million mom-and-pop stores
Alibaba’s B2B retail platform Ling Shou Tong has reached 1.3 million mom-and-pop stores as of August 2019 according to Lin Xiaohai, the Vice President of Alibaba Group and General Manager of the Ling Shou Tong division. That means that one out of six stores in the country is a Ling Shou Tong (LST) customer. According […]
China search engine users overview in Jun 2019; PC vs. Mobile
The number of search engine users reached 498 million on PC, down 2.4% YoY, and 528 million on mobile with an increase of 6.7% YoY, according to data from iResearch. The average time spent per user on search engines dropped to 9.12 minutes in June 2019 from 9.15 minutes in May 2019 and increased to […]
China internet users profile in H1 2019 (PC)
The monthly online users on PC was 502 million in June 2019, 2 million less from May 2019 according to data from iResearch. The number of China internet users above 30 years old grew slightly while the age groups under 30 y-o saw decreased number of users. Over half of China’s internet users received degree […]
China’s post-90s start personal finance management 10 years earlier than their parents
The China New Economic Research Institute and Alipay jointly issued the first “Post-90s Savings Report” in July 2019. The report shows that 92% of the post-90s, people born between 1990 and 1999, have a surplus with their salary every month, and 80% of the people manage the surplus. By comparing their Yu’e Bao, Alipay’s monetary […]
China mobile shopping users close to 1 billion in H1 2019; low-tier cities, mini programs contributed to the growth
The number of monthly active users on mobile shopping in China reached 997 million in June 2019, an increase of 15.6% YoY according to data from QuestMobile. China’s mobile shopping penetration has reached 87.7% as of the end of June 2019. As the overall e-commerce growth is slowing down in China, the main growth of […]
Top mini programs in H1 2019; WeChat vs. Alipay vs. Baidu
WeChat is not the only platform supporting the instant-launch light applications, which is widely known as mini-programs. Leading Chinese internet companies are building their own ecosystem with Tencent’s WeChat, Alibaba’s Alipay, and Baidu’s smart program in the leading positions. Another league of mini-programs worth mentioning is QuickApp, an application ecosystem launched by the nine major […]
China’s mobile internet users overview H1 2019; top 4 companies compared
The monthly active users of China mobile internet dropped to 1.136 billion in June 2019 from 1.138 billion in March 2019 according to data from QuestMobile. China’s mobile internet users grew by 46.07 million in 2018 and slowed down in the first half of 2019 with only 5.7 million additional active users. Daily time spent […]
Coca-Cola is the fastest growing FMCG brand in China
collection of Coke cans showcasing the Avengers characters In the latest 2019 Brand Footprint Report from Kantar Worldpanel China, Coca-Cola surprisingly becomes the fastest growing FMCG brand in consumer reach point. This ranking has been traditionally dominated by local Chinese brands: Chinese drinking water brand Nongfu Spring won back-to-back No.1 growth champions in 2017 and […]
Apple’s smartphone active devices market share dropped to 23.5% in Q2 2019
The combined market share of the top four Chinese mobile brands’ active devices, including Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, further grew to 65.7% in Q2 2019, according to data from QuestMobile. Huawei’s market share increased to 21.63% from 17% a year ago while Apple’s share dropped to 23.51% from 25.5%. The loyalty of iPhone fans […]
China’s cross-border e-commerce users overview 2019
China’s cross-border e-commerce market saw 8.8 trillion yuan transactions in 2018, over 20% of which are import e-commerce sales. The top platforms are Tmall Global and Netease Kaola. 25-34 years-old are the largest user segment (48%). And, cross-border online shoppers are highly educated with high income. Cross-border e-commerce received significant funding in 2018, represented by […]
Quick comparison of Xiaohongshu, Netease Kaola cross-border e-commerce users
Besides Tmall Global and JD Worldwide, Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book, a.k.a. RED) and Netease Kaola are also leading platforms in China’s cross-border e-commerce market. Let’s take a look at a quick comparison of users on these two platforms including the demographic profile and geographic distributions. Xiaohongshu is way ahead of Netease Kaola in terms of […]