New Retail mini-programs (or ‘applets’) have become the standard among major retail brands. Official reports from WeChat say that in 2018, retail Mini-Programs served users 200 million times. The same year, more than 1500 online supermarkets were launched. According to statistics published by Aladdin, retail Mini-Programs account for 21% of the top 200. As they …
This article continues our recent focus on the Philippines, from general insights and analysis to a look at the most popular eCommerce platforms in the country. Filipino Consumers The Philippines is home to a young and tech-savvy population with a cultural identity all their own. The Philippine melting pot infuses the local population with a …
Over the past few years, the boundaries between online and offline sales have blurred. As the Internet and the Internet of Things (IoT) have become ubiquitous in China, a new era has begun. The era of New Retail. In the second half of 2019, the ‘Wild West’ period of the New Retail era is coming …
WeChat has lost its monopoly on Mini-Programs. In the second half of 2018, Baidu, Alipay, ByteDance and TikTok launched their own Mini-Programs to rival WeChat’s dominance. According to Baidu’s data published in May 2019, “since the official launch in July last year, there have been over 200 million active Baidu Mini-Program users each month, over …
ByteDance has entered the Mini-Program later than Baidu and Alipay (and certainly later than applet pioneer WeChat, who kicked off the craze). However, by launching Mini-Programs on its two hugely popular apps, Douyin (TikTok outside of China) and news and article platform Toutiao, ByteDance is standing as a real contender in the Mini-Program sphere. These …
Previously an eCommerce trend in China had been marketplace centralization, with the domination of T-Mall and its associated brands. Now, however, we are seeing the space becoming increasingly decentralized, as social media selling takes hold. This is especially true with the advent of Mini-Programs, which can integrate online store-based selling into the social media apps …
WeChat may have pioneered them, but today several other apps have stepped up to do battle for the title of Mini-Program king. Bytedance (parent to video app sensation TikTok/Douyin), Alipay, Tencent QQ, and Baidu are among the major players that have rushed to launch their own Mini-Programs and incorporate them into the core of their …
The masses have the power, especially in China. However, the masses and quality content go hand in hand on the currently hot Chinese app Xiaohongshu (Red, literally Little Red Book). Only a few months ago, this social commerce unicorn raised 300 million USD in its Series D round of funding from investors including Alibaba Group. …
China’s internet- and mobile phone penetration rates are 92% and 96%. Furthermore, more than 900 million users daily open WeChat. Foreign businesses looking to do cross-border eCommerce in China will first-hand experience that economic and technological development go hand in hand. So how to incorporate WeChat into your multi-channel eCommerce strategy? As the biggest consumer …
China’s mobile payments industry has entered a new and exciting phase, by reaching approximately 16.3 trillion yuan ($2.5 trillion) in 2015. Convenience, speed of transaction and discounts are the main factors encouraging the use of mobile payments over traditional payment options. Whether it’s buying plane tickets or ordering food deliveries or even paying utility bills, …