Welcome to East West Hurricane! 🌪
We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! ⚡️
WeChat’s New E-Commerce Feature 🛍
WeChat has launched new features that allow individuals and brands to open up their own online stores. WeChat is primarily a messaging app, but also has many other features including payments, 3rd-party ticketing, and a social media newsfeed equivalent. With the new e-store feature however, this is an upgrade of their current mini-program functionality and is WeChat’s biggest and clearest move into e-commerce.
This new online store product includes features like payments, livestreaming, translation, order management and more. All business are able to test this new product, and there will be a full rollout for all users at a later date. This makes WeChat compete more directly with other Chinese tech companies like Pinduoduo, Douyin, Kuaishou, who are social commerce apps that use features like livestreaming to directly sell products in-app.
With all the varied functionality and scale (over 1 billion users), Wechat is already considered the prime example of what’s known as a “SuperApp.” This new e-commerce feature is an important product development because it’s like the first step in creating a ‘Shopify’ within WeChat. This means that users can increasingly have the tools to sell products within WeChat, not other apps.
JD Creates Augmented Reality Shoe Offering 👟
Footwear is a very big industry in China and Sneakers are especially hot for younger demographics. The Chinese sneaker market is expected to reach $10 Billion by 2025. JD.com, China’s second largest e-commerce platform, is adding more fire to the market with their introduction of augmented reality (AR) shoe-fitting.
JD will soon be launching an app that allows customers to use AR to take their shoe measurements using their phone. This was created in partnership with Sony, using their Time of Flight distance measuring technology. Nike created something similar last year, adding AR functionality to their app that measures a person’s shoe size within a certain margin of error. With our lives becoming more digital and our shopping experiences becoming more virtual, a mobile app using AR to measure foot size seems like the logical next step in the wild world of e-commerce.
iQiyi’s Latest Announcements at iJoy Conference 📺
iQiyi is one of China’s largest video streaming platforms and they hosted their annual conference in Shanghai last week. Much like major conferences hosted by tech companies like Apple or Facebook, or media companies like the major TV channels in the US, iQiyi’s iJoy Conference was their opportunity to announce their next steps in online entertainment.
iQiyi focused on 60 new drama series and variety shows they will be launching over the coming months. The company also wants to nurture new young idols and create what they call “celebrity/KOL + settings + brand incubator.” Reading between the corporate buzzwords, iQiyi wants to create their own IP, better utilise influencers (known in China as KOLs), and create both online and offline brand experiences to monetise their audience. iQiyi also announced the launch of a brand called BKStore, a sort of street culture hub that focuses on collaborations between brands and graffiti artists, musicians, and designers. They’ll also create Fourtry Space, which is an actual offline store based on the reality show “Fourtry,” where these celebrities were supposed to create a trendy fashion boutique in Tokyo. Another really successful Chinese reality show was “The Rap of China,” kind of like a Chinese Hip-Hop talent show.
If you contrast this with supposed Western streaming equivalents like Netflix, iQiyi seems to take a more vertically integrated approach to content. For iQiyi, it’s not just about creating intellectual property and acquiring content. It’s also about investing in young talent/influencers, and actively creating partnerships with the right brands to sell more products.
Update #29 - WeChat E-Commerce, AR Footwear, and iQiyi's iJoy conference