What Is 618 Shopping Festival?

The annual “618 Shopping Festival” is the most important consumer battleground in the first half of the year. It has become a critical market for all e-commerce platforms. The “618” pre-sale this year also began as early as May.

This year’s “618” included improved user shopping experiences with more simple promotion restrictions, as well as richer lists, more effective logistics, and more thoughtful after-sales services. This was supplied by each e-commerce platform, attracting more consumers to participate in the online buying binge.

Let’s examine how e-commerce platforms, categorie, and brands fared at the 618 festival this year.

Top 3 Ecommerce Platforms

The top three platforms remained the same as in years prior, with TMall leading the way, followed by JD and PDD. Furthermore, the GMV of traditional e-commerce platforms this year reached 582.6 billion yuan.

Top 3 Live streaming Ecommerce Platforms

Live streaming eCommerce platforms fared well, with a GMV of 144.5 billion yuan. The departure of Li Jiaqi and other DianTao Live Streamers changed the hierarchy of live streaming eCommerce platforms in 618, with DianTao dropping behind TikTok and KuaiShou to third place.

Alibaba

Taobao streamlined the preferred rules and marketing complexity in June, this year. For every 199 or 1000 yuan spent, the discount for cross-store sales was reduced by 20 yuan or 50 yuan.

There were six brands with revenues exceeding one billion yuan in a single category, among the 35 categories counted in a third-party research company Nint’s report.

A total of 108 brands had sales in excess of one billion yuan. Apple, Midea, Haier, Xiaomi, and L’Oreal were among the top five in overall sales. Apple is the only brand with more than 10 billion yuan (US$2.23 billion) in sales and has emerged as the clear victor.

JD.com

JD’s data suggested that the “post-95” generation’s spending power is increasing, with pre-order sales increasing by 75% year on year. Meanwhile, the product variety offered on JD.com during this year’s shopping festival climbed by 20%. The demand from China’s sixth-tier cities increased by more than 100% year on year.

Home appliance sales increased by 200 percent year on year, while order volume for new products tripled. Tablet, home printer, and mechanical keyboard sales climbed by 100, 170, and 400 percent, respectively.

JD Health’s overall order volume in the healthcare area increased by 186 percent year on year. In the first 10 minutes…

Several brands, including Xiaomi, Midea, Haier, Lenovo, Apple, HONOR, Huawei, SONY, Asus, Siemens, sold more than RMB 100 million yuan worth of products in the first 10 minutes of the 618 shopping festival. According to JD’s data, the most popular search keywords in the first 10 minutes were smartphones, air conditioners, Chinese sticky rice dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival (which occurred on June 3 this year), infant formula, and toys. Over a hundred home brands on JD.com saw their sales jump in the first 10 minutes.

JD Worldwide provides Chinese customers with cross-border imports. In the first 10 minutes, nearly 150 international brands saw sales increase by more than 200%. Sales in roughly 100 subcategories increased by more than 100% year on year. Nintendo, Swarovski, and a2 milk powder are the top three selling brands.

JD.com recorded a total transaction volume of RMB 379.3 billion yuan (US$56.7 billion) for JD 618 Grand Promotion 2022 as of 23:59 on June 18th Beijing time; above the previous year’s RMB 343.8 billion yuan.

Tik Tok

Douyin e-commerce witnessed a total of 28.52 million hours of live streaming during 618 last year. From June 1 to June 18 2022, it reached 40.45 million hours, an increase of more than 40% over the same period the previous year.

115.1 billion short videos integrated with shopping carts were viewed. During the 618 event, the “search” option was really useful. Douyin mall saw a 514 % increase in sales year on year,  and the number of engaged retailers climbed by 159 %.

Sales Categories

In terms of overall sales categories, household appliances and electronics fared well and climbed at a 6.7 % year on year growth rate. While skincare, fragrance, and makeup declined 18.9 % and 22.1 %, respectively, year on year.

At the event, companies ranging from pasta producer Barilla to shampoo company Ryo offered “stock up” bundles featuring bulk orders of their products.

During 618, the GMV of Household Appliances/Electronics was 87.9 billion. Midea, Haier, and Gree were the top three most popular brands.

In Closing

618, which debuted in 2010, is China’s second-most important shopping event, trailing only Alibaba’s Single’s Day shopping event on November 11. Over the last decade, the event has evolved from a JD-created rival event to a vital mid-year shopping campaign for all e-commerce giants.

This year’s event shows us that Chinese consumers are back. With One-Stop Digital Marketing Solutions, Digital Crew enables international brands to thrive in the Chinese market, especially during these shopping holidays. Get in touch with us today.

The post 2022 Proves Why 618 Is Downright Crucial For Ecommerce Brands In China appeared first on Digital Crew.

Here are some updates, insights, and a behind-the-scenes look, that will give you a deeper understanding of how China’s biggest retail extravaganza was put together this year.

1) A large number of SMEs (about two-thirds of the 290,000 retailers) participated. This meant more options for consumers.

2) Apple and cosmetics brand L’Oréal sold more than RMB100 million ($15.6 million) between midnight on November 1 and 00:45 on November 11.

3) As esports becomes more popular, gaming desks and seats, mouses, graphics cards, and gaming laptops were among the most popular items for this year’s 11.11.

4) Consumers From Smaller Cities and Rural Areas powered this year’s 11.11. Spending by these consumers increased by nearly 25% compared to last year.

5) During the first two hours of 11.11 pre-sales on October 20, more than 20,000 buyers purchased green home appliances, saving 300 tonnes of carbon emissions that would otherwise be emitted by the manufacture and use of inefficient appliances.

6) Thousands of brands ramped up special privileges to engage their top customers. This included limited-edition goods and member-only vouchers, as well as complimentary after-sales maintenance and repairs.

7) Tmall Global businesses incorporated short films from influencers and Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs) on their product sites, thanks to recent enhancements. And, a newly created warehouse network enabled next-day deliveries in China.

8) More than 200 premium and designer labels took part, including, for the first time, Hermes and Saint Laurent.

9) Consumers could buy one shoe for half the price of a pair on Tmall’s brand flagship stores. This was part of the “One Shoe Program” that aimed to make shopping more accessible to people with disabilities.

10) Taobao Live, which is used by brands to sell their products on Taobao’s virtual marketplace, introduced a number of new livestreaming capabilities, including content marketing tools and brand channel membership programs.

11) Taobao Deals and Idle Fish launched Mini-Programs on WeChat, while Youku, Damai, Ele.me, and Kaola used WeChat Pay to handle platform transactions. This 11.11, shoppers were able to make purchases using UnionPay and other payment partners for the first time.

12) This year, Alibaba donated RMB1 for every 11.11 purchase that was successfully shared on social media by users. The proceeds from this year’s 11.11 will primarily benefit three groups of people: the elderly living alone, kids left in rural places while their parents work in cities, and low-income households in emerging regions.

13) To enable contactless delivery, it also used robots to manage its smart warehouse and deliver items directly to people’s doorsteps.

14) Taobao’s senior mode features larger texts and icons and voice-assisted technology, making it easier for senior citizens to search for products using voice commands.

Digital Crew is a Chinese digital marketing agency that can help your business successfully provide the best shopping experience to your consumers during all major holidays. Get in touch with us today.

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On Xiaohongshu, the quality of comments is generally higher than on other sites. Users will discuss their experiences with the products featured in the post, ask questions regarding the products, and offer advice to other commenters. On Xiaohongshu, “collects” are a significant way to measure engagement. Unlike Weibo, users cannot repost, but they can collect posts they like or find useful and save them to boards for later use. It’s quite similar to Pinterest boards.

UGC Informs Purchasing Decisions

Pre-purchase information that is genuine is the need of the hour for high-quality shoppers. Authenticity is at the heart of Xiaohongshu’s user posts, which are driven by candid product reviews (aka Shopping Notes).

It’s akin to having an illustrated guidebook that informs you on how to shop (covering such topics as which up-and-coming brands you need to know, how to spot fakes and the best time of the year to shop for the best deals). Users can make purchases based on shopping notes, enabling a quick and easy shopping experience that takes place exclusively on the platform.

UGC Trends –  What’s Popular?

Beauty, skincare, and female fashion are the most popular categories. Travel, fitness, male fashion and grooming, baby care, and food are all growing sectors.
Fun Fact: When a product becomes popular on Douyin, the posts and searches for it on Xiaohongshu tends to rise as well.

The idea of plastic surgery is becoming less taboo as it becomes more popular among young Chinese women. Women are sharing their thoughts and experiences. Also, many Xiaohongshu users record their pregnancies and births to share with other mothers-to-be.

There are several posts on Xiaohongshu that are not about products but rather about imparting life tips. Many ladies on Xiaohongshu have travelled or lived overseas and are interested in learning how to navigate cross-cultural relationships.

An Important Integration With Taobao

Taobao and Xiaohongshu formally merged on November 28th, 2018. Under the ‘review’ portion of Taobao’s product page, user-generated posts from Xiaohongshu are displayed. This is a significant move that many had been anticipating since Alibaba’s investment in Xiaohongshu in the spring. This means that providing user-generated content on Xiaohongshu is more vital than ever for Taobao and Tmall sellers. For the time being, this connection is limited to a few companies; however, we anticipate increased collaboration between Alibaba and Xiaohongshu, as well as the addition of new features, in the near future.

There are no one-size-fits-all solutions when it comes to entering the Chinese market. A  Chinese digital agency like Digital Crew works with you to determine the best approach, from research to strategy, to campaign execution, and on-going management.

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Xiaohongshu or RED or Little Red Book has surely gained popularity at its earliest stage as compared to other start-ups, but off late it has been under the radar for all the wrong reasons. The social e-commerce platform has been tightening its fists with brand and KOL partnerships because of the backlash it has received in the past few months.

The Rise Of Xiaohongshu

The platform first started gaining its popularity from users that travelled overseas and posted reviews about products from the fashion, beauty, makeup, health, baby product sectors. Users kept coming back to discuss the products in depth before eventually making the purchase. 85% of these users were female born in the ’90s. This millennial cohort soon became best friends with the app for its authenticity and quality maintenance (given the counterfeit issues on other platforms). New moms could trust the app for baby products, makeup and skincare enthusiasts knew they had a safe platform to rely on for reviews because of the quality it maintained. The platform soon opened its doors to brand partnerships with giants like Chanel and Dior, peaking the interest of other global brands.

The Fall Of Xiaohongshu

Xiaohongshu failed to monitor the reviews that kept going out on a daily basis after which many users retreated to Weibo to express their remorse. According to reports from the internal team, its content-audit team deleted about 4,285 notes a day which was still not enough. Users further began to lose faith in the content because it all seemed to be filled with advertised or fake posts, instead of genuine user-generated content.

Quality Of Products

In addition to that, Xiaohongshu was incompetent when it couldn’t maintain the quality of products that were sold on the platform. Sales of restricted and fake products started spreading on the platforms and some products like tobacco, e-cigarettes and medicinal products such as skin-injection kits tarnished the name of the brand it first stood for.

Things got rough when Ms Fang ordered the ordinary-brand skin cream after she received a recommendation from a friend overseas. Matters got worse when the cream caused a skin reaction after which she concluded that she was sold a fake and called out the platform for encouraging the sale.

KOLs On Xiaohongshu

Xiaohongshu took the necessary steps to take control of the situation and sign up with authentic KOLs in January and introduced a process with more controlled requirements, making it difficult for brands and KOLs to partner with the platform.

The number of KOLs that qualified for the platform fell from a whooping 17,000 to a mere 4,700 according to reports. This system gave rise to the micro-influencer structures that developed a closer connection with their audience and put back the sole reason this platform was devised for – User-generated content.

What E-commerce Brand Marketers Must Learn From Xiaohongshu

Millennials won’t compromise on quality no matter what the price label says when it comes to skincare, health and other products that could cause any sort of physical damage. E-commerce platforms have to think about their reputation while striking partnerships and maintain a strict quality control because reliability goes a long way

Conclusion

Xiaohongshu will spring back before users know it and will regain their position in the market. It plans to launch KOL live streaming to bridge the current credibility gap and is set to give more power to its users by launching the new XHS Ecosystem Manager feature, which will give experience users a manager position after passing rule-compliance tests. The ecosystem managers are set to have voting rights on whether the content is genuine or violates rules, thereby making the customer a true king.

Get In Touch With Us For More Insights On Platforms Like Xiaohongshu

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The future plans for Digital Crew are to continue collaborating closely with Alibaba Cloud to utilise their cloud structure to further improvise our work flow and productivity by using the platform and to help our clients make informed marketing decisions from big data. Digital Crew has a strong relationship with Alibaba Cloud and work together to deliver the best solutions for clients such as hosting in Australia, USA or Mainland China, ICP license, Domain management, server architecture, Content Delivery Network (CDN) and many more.

The Challenge

Clients have their current website hosting in their host country and this can be a challenge when they want to expand into China as the current website tends to load slowly due to firewall challenges in China. Accordingly, Digital Crew help clients set up a new hosting environments in Mainland China as well as applying for ICP (Internet Content Provider) licenses. The agency is also available to help customers manage their domain and use a CDN to improve site speed and load times.

Deployment

Why Alibaba Cloud

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Digital Crew rang in the New Year by partnering with the lifeline of Chinese social media – Weibo & WeChat. The firm is all set to explode with fresh new synergies brought about by this partnership and is growing stronger by the months with their arsenal of multilingual experts, certified translators and digital marketing specialists.

It is by far, an independent agency that elicits its multilingual specialisation in the Apac region  with a Weibo and WeChat partnership in addition to Alibaba, Google, Baidu and NAATI.

Weibo

The microblogging platform that is supposedly known as Chinese twitter is a portal of information about the western world and international brands to the Chinese users. The leading social media platform with 600 million users allows users to create, distribute and discover Chinese language content.

Digital Crew has successfully leveraged Weibo for campaigns that reached millions in China for brands like Lancôme, Loreal, Chimelong, Toll group, Chemist Warehouse, Cebu Pacific. Etc. The team of multilingual experts have curated targeted and localised content for these brands over the years.

WeChat

As one of China’s top social media platforms, WeChat is an application that runs on a Chinese individual’s phone by default. With over 1 billion users, WeChat is an a one in all app that offers an array of functions right from hailing a cab to shopping online and of course texting.

Digital Crew has helped brands like Cebu pacific, Chemist Warehouse, Kiehls, Ironfish, Chime Long etc to scale up their Chinese marketing strategies through successful WeChat and Weibo campaigns

Cebu Pacific WeChat Statistics Result

The organisation is a multi-award winning multilingual digital agency with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Tokyo, New York and Mumbai. They specialize in Chinese, English, Japanese and Hinglish Digital Marketing services. They help brands target audiences in local and international markets by generating leads, improve user engagement, raise brand visibility, increase sales, and build successful partnerships.

Alicloud Partnership

Digital Crew established their partnership with Alicloud 3 years ago with a view to improve the efficiency of their website services as a result of which:

-The intuitive ICP application process has eased the workload for the web development team

-Strong server access throughout Mainland China has fastened the domain and hosting process

-Supportive assistance in a timely manner by dedicated personnel has helped us update features quickly

-The compatible credit system for simple payment solutions doesn’t come with any hidden costs and the buying process is as transparent as it can be.

-The Comprehensive server and website monito have relieved administrator pressure

Google

Digital Crew signed up with Google as a partner in 2008 and continues to grow stronger with its presence on the search engine till this very day. The Google partnership has benefitted the agency and strengthened client relationships:

-The partnership has increased the client revenue growth and sustained the client base

-The specialized partnership has helped Digital Crew leverage search and optimise the website for some of the biggest brands

-The supportive algorithm has worked in favour of the team across multiple countries

-Access to exclusive business strategy consulting from Google has put the agency at the fore front of its search game

For more information on Chinese Digital Marketing, Download our E-book

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Alibaba singles day sales outnumbered the revenue generated from Amazon sales day, setting a new record for the platform. Amazon’s prime day sale in July, the retailer’s biggest day of the year is estimated to have generated around $4 billion in sales by selling 100 million items across 17 countries. Another awaited sales day – Black Friday in the U.S. to take place on 23^rd November is yet to compete with the record set by Alibaba’s sales day.

What Is Alibaba Singles Day Sales?

Let us tell you a tale about certain ‘days’ created by retailers to encourage user behaviour and you will be able to connect the dots.

Presenting to you the commercial relevance of special days

Valentines Day:

Authors like Chaucer and Shakespeare popularized Valentine’s Day with their works and contributed to the transformation of this day into a holiday of matchmaking and gift-giving. Ever since, Valentine’s Day has been contributing to the way western culture celebrates and expresses love, associating it more closely with the material. The V-day sales figures shot up to $19.8 billion U.S dollars in 2018 and is expected to increase by another 5.5 percent in 2019

Singles Day:

This day is a 20^th century celebration that was started in 2014, which is also known as ‘bare sticks holiday,’ was started in 1993 at Nanjing University as a day for students to celebrate their singledom. The date 11:11 was chosen as it resembles 4 solitary bare sticks. The annual event kicks off on the midnight of 11 November and runs for 24 hours featuring steep discounts that are driven by the main Alibaba-owned platform, Tmall. Essentially, think of it as the Asian version of America’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping sales – but bigger than the two combined.

Why Did Singles Day Kick Off Soo Quickly?

The factors responsible for the success of singles day sales can be traced back to China’s population for an obvious indicator but what further contributed to the sales that hit this record?

Celebrity Promotion

Western celebrities, Mariah Carey and Miranda Kerr, further boosted this sales event to encourage millennial online consumption. Carey sang her songs “Emotions” and “Hero” before chatting awkwardly with the host about her online shopping habits, while Kerr plugged her skincare line before attempting to sing a few bars of a popular Chinese song. Cirque du Soleil performers did a shopping-themed number. Beyonce may not have been available, so Alibaba made do with a plus-sized Japanese Beyonce impersonator, the comedian Naomi Watanabe, who strutted her stuff in a fringed gold leotard and flowing blonde tresses, while belting out a plausible rendition of “Crazy in Love.”

New Retail Strategy

Alibaba is less of a traditional retailer than Amazon. Alibaba is is better known as a platform for everything from takeout apps to supermarkets and even film production. It’s new retail strategy that merged online and offline sales in China, did not leave any stones unturned. The sales keep plummeting to unbelievable numbers each year as a result.

Jack Ma’s Statement

This year marks the last Singles Day led by Jack Ma, Alibaba founder and leading light. Ma announced in September that he would step down from his role as the company’s chairman next year. Ma thus stated that singles day was more than just a mere commercially driven event but rather a day of gratitude to all his customers that have been a part of this journey till date.

The post Alibaba Rakes In $30.8 billion For Singles Day Sales Within 24 Hours appeared first on Digital Crew.

The Golden Week holiday is a seven-day national holiday in China, and there are typically two of these a year. The most recent one just came to an end, and adding up the post-holiday figures, Golden Week proved an excellent one for Alipay, who reported some big new numbers for Chinese travellers spending overseas with the week off.

Over the last 15 years, mobile payments in China have grown into a $16 trillion market dominated by China’s two biggest tech giants – Tencent and Alibaba.

Tencent and Alibaba’s competing mobile payment apps – WeChat Pay and AliPay, respectively – are used by just about everyone in China, from fancy restaurants and high-end designer boutiques down to street vendors, taxi drivers, and even pan-handlers.

The mobile payments infrastructure in China will only keep experiencing a spike upwards because:

• Mobile payments are as common as possessing a mobile in India. Everybody has it right from the vegetable vendors to top businessmen
• Paying by phone became popular in China in part because credit cards never gained the popularity they see elsewhere in the world, and because the infrastructure for mobile payments was already in place
• Phone-scannable QR codes also mean that anyone can become a merchant, since you don’t need any hardware like a card or chip readers

There were some positively massive increases in overseas spending, in fact, with Alipay reporting that the Sydney Airport in Australia saw spending levels through Alipay that were 55 times higher than last year. In Osaka’s Dotonbori zone, the Alipay spending was up fully 70 times over last year. Just to top it off, the UK’s Bicester Village outlet shopping centre in the UK saw levels climb to 90 times the previous year’s figures.

Tencent did not release detailed data related to the holiday, but it reported some spending trends through its mobile payment service. The company noted that 52 percent of WeChat Pay transactions during the holiday were at duty-free shops.

Those were just some of the high points; while other locations didn’t see such pronounced gains, locations from Bangkok to Paris to Toronto all saw some numbers jump.

Regardless of the figures, one thing was clear: Chinese customers are increasingly comfortable with using mobile payments systems via their smartphones. Word from Nielsen notes that 90 percent of Chinese users will turn to a smartphone first to make payments. Most of these users will turn to either Alipay — who has around half of the country’s mobile payment market sewn up or WeChat Pay, who holds fully 39 percent of the market. The remaining 11 percent is split between a host of competitors, from big names like Apple Pay to comparatively smaller entries.

Conclusion

About 61 percent of the traveller population in China were between 31-40 years aka those with the spending power and merely 20 percent of travellers were the older, retired lot. The population ratio is one of main reasons that contribute to an increase in mobile payments.

Download our E-BOOK for more insights about Chinese buying behaviour 

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The Alibaba Hema Store

The onset of Alibaba Hema stores have now added a new twist to the old Chinese joke that said ‘The Chinese people like to live near good public schools’ but now it’s replaced with ‘The Chinese people want to live close to the Hemas, because they can now get everything delivered to them very easily!’

The Chinese tech giant that is valued at $500 million plans to go after the offline world to establish its presence. The investments in physical retail stores has helped the company fulfil its ‘New Retail’ vision with Hema.

What Is Hema?

This video that is self-explanatary gives you a gist of what we tell you about Hema

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEbYNJZ9iJ4

The fresh food-focused supermarket offers customers the ability to shop in-store or on its app, see the origins of the products in the store, have food delivered for free or prepared for pickup within 30 minutes, and pay with facial recognition technology.

The name Hema stands for ‘Boxed/packaged freshness and liveliness”. The clever name choice happens to be its selling point even in the long run keeping in mind the ‘stale food’ stigma that inhibits online food purchase for most Chinese people. It promises ultra-fresh meat, veggies, fruit and sea food.

Where are they located?

There are over 65 Hema Xiansheng locations in China. Most are located in high-end shopping malls or mixed-used developments close to where Chinese people both work and live. Core to Hema’s model is that it offers free 30-minute grocery deliveries to a 3-kilometer radius.

How Does It Work?

In order to shop at Hema, you have to download the app, which logs all of your purchases, saves your preferences and delivery address, and allows you to pay with Alipay, Alibaba’s mobile payments provider. After shopping at Hema, you’ll have a personalized product page based on your preferences and purchases.

Unique Selling Point Of This Store

Freshness is a big deal in the Chinese culture. The two words for freshness in Mandarin, namely one for ‘crisp’ fruits and vegetables that is ‘新鲜’ and another for freshly butchered meat and fish that is  ‘鲜嫩’. That’s how particular the Chinese are about their groceries and Hema has managed to blur this line with convenience.

The most important attraction of the Hema store is its expansive live seafood section that is equal to a traditional outdoor supermarket and the best part? Customers can select their produce and also get it cooked on the spot to for customers to consume it. The in-dining option certainly reinforces a customer’s faith in quality produce.

In-Dining Section

In addition to its traditional grocery items, Hema has an expansive prepared foods section. It’s a little like a high-end food court, with enough space to seat 100 people. Because Hema stores are usually near office buildings, it’s a very popular lunch spot.

Customized Robot shopping

Thanks to Alibaba’s deep trove of data on consumers — the company had nearly 500 million active consumers on its platforms in 2017 — as well as the data collected by the Hema app, each Hema store is able to tailor its stock based on the spending habits of those who frequent the shop.

Product Information

All items in the store have a barcode that can be scanned in the app to provide information about a product’s origin, the company behind the product, cooking instructions, nutritional information, and pricing. Customers can even add a product to an online order to be delivered at another time

Fast Delivery?

The Key to changing consumers’ mindsets around online purchasing is Hema’s ultrafast delivery, which promises grocery deliveries in under 30 minutes for those living within 3 kilometers. Some stores offer 24-hour 30-minute delivery.

What is the aim of this store?

The supermarket offers around 3,000 different products in each store, while the Hema app has over 50,000 items. Prices are synchronized between online and offline via electronic shelf labels. The goal of the store, according to founder Hou Yi, is “to drive offline customers to shop online.” 85% of sales in China still happen offline.

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Jack Ma, one of China’s richest businessman who created the multi-billion-dollar business – Alibaba decided to step down from his throne of executive chairman. The group later announced that Daniel Zhang, Alibaba’s CEO, will succeed Ma as chairman of the board and continue performing his current role.

About Daniel Zhang

Zhang joined the company in 2007 as chief financial officer of the Taobao Marketplace platform and became CEO of Alibaba Group in May 2015. The company credits him with being a key architect of the Black Friday-inspired Nov 11 – Single’s Day shopping bonanza and leading Alibaba’s expansion into logistics as well as its Amazon-like-foray into offline grocery retail.

History Of Alibaba

Alibaba started as an online marketplace for businesses to sell their products to other businesses. But it did not take off until it began the Taobao marketplace in 2003, which merchants used to sell goods directly to consumers. Alibaba later rolled out Alipay, an online payment service, to facilitate transactions in a country where few people had credit cards. Alipay later became Ant Financial, the financial subsidiary that Mr. Ma also controls.

Today, Alibaba’s empire encompasses e-commerce, online banking, cloud computing, digital media and entertainment — and even a corporate messaging service similar to Slack. The company owns or holds stakes in some of China’s most important media assets, including China’s social media platform – Weibo and the Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper The South China Morning Post.

Why Did He Decide To Make This Move?

We’ve seen the business-oriented side of Jack Ma but haven’t witnessed the roots that drove him to build the empire that exists today. As a former English Teacher, Mr. Ma started Alibaba in 1999 and built it into one of the world’s most consequential e-commerce and digital payments companies, transforming how Chinese people shop and pay for things. That fuelled his net worth to more than $420 billion, making him China’s richest man. He is revered by many Chinese individuals who pay respect to him by mounting his portraits on their walls in the same way that they worship the God of Wealth.

In an interview, Mr. Ma said his retirement is not the end of an era but “the beginning of an era.” He said he would be spending more of his time and fortune focused on education. “I love education,” he said.

Conclusion

This move Is a rare one for Chinese tycoons as they prefer staying on top of their organizations in their 50’s. The business tycoon that built the $420 billion internet company has decided to give back to society by investing his money and time into the education sector. He manifested his vision for the future in a letter to customers, employees and shareholders, Ma described the announcement as a confirmation that Alibaba has graduated from being ‘a company that relies on individuals, to one built on systems of organizational excellence and a culture of talent development.’

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