Update #8 - 618 Festival, JD/Kuaishou, and Disney+
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JD’s 618 Festival is TODAY!!! 🎊
Today, June 18, is JD.com’s online shopping festival called the 618 Festival. You could think of this as a Chinese version of Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Prime Day. From an economic recovery perspective, it will be interesting to see how sales have changed because of the coronavirus.
Early data and analyst reports indicate that this year’s 618 festival should have an increase in sales vs. last year. 100,000 brands have signed up for Alibaba’s Tmall online shopping platform, which is double the 2019 number. On a Labour Day holiday last month, online sales of physical goods increased 36.3% year-on-year.
If 618 has unprecedented growth thanks the coronavirus, what should that tell us about the state of post-Covid e-commerce in other countries as well?
JD’s Strategic Partnership as Tool for Competition 🤝
In the lead up to the 618 Festival, all the major e-commerce platforms in China will be competing against each other — specifically Alibaba, JD, and Pinduoduo. Alibaba has the biggest advantage; one instructive data point is that Alibaba has a 55.9% market share of Chinese e-commerce, while JD has 16.7% and Pinduoduo has 7.3%.
Alibaba plans to host the largest celebrity livestream in Chinese history during this year’s 618 festival, and already has 700 Million customers on its Taobao Live e-commerce livestreaming platform.
So what has JD done to respond to Alibaba? They have formed a strategic partnership with Kuaishou, the mobile video app that rivals Douyin, the Chinese TikTok. This combo allows JD to tap into Kuaishou’s 300 Million users who are especially based in lower-tier cities, the country’s main growth demographic.
Disney+ Making Moves in South East Asia 🐭
Earlier this month, Disney+ removed its content from Singtel and StarHub, two platforms that were previously the only place you could watch Disney content in Singapore. This has led to speculation that Disney+ will soon be launching in South East Asia.
Disney+ launched in Japan on June 11. Looking at Disney’s careers page, they are currently hiring for several senior roles in Singapore and Indonesia. Right now, it would make a lot of sense for Disney to continue their expansion into Asia.
