Chinese e-commerce behemoth JD officially released the “Paipai second-hand (拍拍二手)” brand, Chinese media 36kr is reporting. As the second-hand e-commerce market is growing bigger and seeing its arch-rival Alibaba’s second-hand e-commerce Xianyu is doing well in the sector, JD is making a move into the burgeoning but risky market. Paipai has built-in automatic valuation system to help […]
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Tencent bets on online flea market with $200m investment in Zhuan Zhuan
The decades-long rivalry between Tencent and Alibaba spans almost every hot tech vertical in China. It’s no exaggeration to say that where there’s Tencent, there’s Alibaba and vice versa. The competition between the two Chinese internet giants is now entering another field – second-hand goods trading market. According to the official announcement, Tencent has injected […]
Ant Financial invests in Shanghai-based fintech startup VFinance
Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate of Alibaba, has made a strategic investment in VFinance (维金), a Shanghai-based startup providing digital financial infrastructure solutions to enterprises in China, according to VFinance’s announcement. At a press conference on July 18th, VFinance also signed strategic cooperation with MyBank (网商银行), an online bank launched by Ant Financial in 2015. The cooperation […]
Four strategies of China’s top 10 e-commerce apps
Pushing advertisement online and offline has been the typical strategy of China’s e-commerce giants to bring in customers, explaining why e-commerce sector is one of the toughest battlegrounds for freshly born startups since they have little money to spend on advertising. However, the trend is changing. As startups like Bolome, combining live streaming into cross-border […]
Ex-Baidu Founder Shakes Hands With Tencent In $85M USD Renrenche Funding Boost
Used-car sales platform Renrenche has scooped $85 million USD in Series C funding from Tencent. The company, which was founded by a series of ex-Baidu employees, now has a valuation of $ 500 Million USD. Founded in April 2014, the company received $5 million USD series A funding from Redpoint Ventures and launched its services in July in Beijing, Guangzhou and […]
China is the leading country for blockchain patents with Alibaba and PBOC on top
Alibaba is the world’s leading enterprise for the number of patents published for blockchain technology, with the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) in third place, according to a report by IPRdaily, a Chinese site dedicated to IP news, and incoPat, an innovation research indexing center. The report (in Chinese) […]
Meituan-Dianping raises $4B new fund, reflects heated proxy war of Tencent and Alibaba
Meituan-Dianping, China’s O2O and e-commerce platform, announced today that it has landed a $4 billion Series C round of financing led by Tencent. With the newly pocketed funds, the firm is expected to further expand its four core businesses: in-store dining, entertainment, on-demand delivery, and travel. Meituan-Dianping has a large scale of offerings, including food […]
We went to Alibaba’s Computing Conference to check out the future of the Ali ecosystem
China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba not only wants to be the best e-commerce player in the market, but also wants to deepen its technological prowess. At Alibaba’s annual Computing Conference 2017 held in Hangzhou on October 11th, not only did the company unveil its plans to invest $15 billion over the next 3 years in its R&D, […]
We tried Starbucks Roastery’s AR game, and this is what we think
The practice of drinking tea has a long history in China, having originated there during the Tang Dynasty. But in 2017, the practice of drinking coffee could be adding a new chapter to its history in China. For those living in Shanghai, last week’s WeChat Moments were filled with Shanghai locals posting pictures and selfies […]
Alipay vs WeChat: Challenges and strategies of two payment giants going global
Cash has taken hundreds of years to establish its status as a common medium for trade, but it is quickly turning obsolete across China. Replacing it, the ubiquitous QR code-based mobile payment solutions operated by internet giants like Alibaba and Tencent. From flagship stores of top-notch luxury brands to street butcher shops, payment through third-party […]