JD has rolled out a Zoom-like video conferencing app, JoyMeeting, amid its push into enterprise-facing services.
Why it matters: JD is the latest Chinese tech major to tap the remote work tool market.
- Interest in workplace technologies, such as productivity and videoconference tools, arose along with Chinese tech giants’ transition to enterprise-facing services.
- Enterprise tech is believed to be an emerging growth point for tech firms in China, where consumer-facing services are already mature.
- By entering the sector, JD is competing with global rivals like Zoom as well as local competitors Tencent, Alibaba, and ByteDance.
- While the pandemic is spreading across the world, Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance are increasingly setting their sights on the global market by doubling down on global versions of their workplace apps.
Read more: Chinese tech firms eye the work collaboration app market
Details: JoyMeeting, developed by JD subsidiary Jingdong Shangke Information, was a video conference tool previously only available to JD’s team and partners.
- JoyMeeting comes with videoconference features for one-on-one conversations, meetings, interviews, and lectures
Context: It is a common practice among large Chinese tech firms to develop homegrown communication apps to facilitate workflows as well as keep their data secure. More companies are opening their internal work apps, developed and tested within the company, to mark territory in the growing market.
- Chinese tech firms have released a bunch of workplace apps since late 2019, including Tencent Meeting, Alibaba Cloud Conference, Dingtalk Lite, Feishu Meeting.