Week #9: The House Passes Legislation that could Ban TikTok in the US | Temu Might Face Tougher Regulations as it Hits 75M Users in the EU
Latest news and analysis on China’s global e-sellers
Here’s our pick for last week’s news:
Vietnamese Vendors on TikTok Shop Garnered $1.3B in Revenue over the Last 6 Months
Temu Might Face Tougher Regulations as it Hits 75M Users in the EU
Supply Chain Service Provider Panex WD Completes Tens of Millions of Dollars in Series B Financing
FinTech PingPong Payments Secured its Spot on the Global Unicorn Index 2024
Alibaba's AliExpress Announced Tang Wei as Brand Ambassador in Korea
Collectable Toys Brand Pop Mart Launches its 4th Store in Thailand
Mala Tang Chain Yang Guo Fu Plans to Open 20 New Stores Across Europe by 2024
Alibaba's Cainiao Achieves 86% Surge in Parcel Volume across Spain over the Last Quarter
The House Passes Legislation that could Ban TikTok in the US
SHEIN Revives Interest in Snapping up Topshop
SHEIN & TEMU's Logistics Partner Uni Express Secures $50M Investment
Vietnamese Vendors on TikTok Shop Garnered $1.3B in Revenue over the Last 6 Months
TikTok Shop has surpassed Lazada to become Vietnam's No. 2 online marketplace after Shopee, with vendors in the country earning up to 1.3 billion USD in the past six months, analytics firm Metric said. According to TikTok Vietnam, VinFast motorcycles and Samsung phones are the leading products driving growth. TikTok is making waves in Southeast Asia's e-commerce landscape, with its annual revenue expected to exceed 12 billion USD.
TikTok has come a long way in Vietnam since its presence five years ago from a video-sharing app to e-commerce. DataReportal reveals that Vietnamese Android users spend an average of 41 hours per month on TikTok, far surpassing the 28 hours their time on the second most-used app, Facebook. Currently, TikTok Vietnam boasted 67 million users early this year versus 50 million a year earlier in a country of 100 million people, compared to Facebook's 73 million users and YouTube's 63 million.
Temu Might Face Tougher Regulations as it Hits 75M Users in the EU
PDD-owned Chinese e-commerce platform Temu, which entered the EU market in April last year, had reached 75M average monthly active users (MAUs) in the EU for the six months ended March 31, 2024.
Under the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA), companies with more than 45 million users are labelled very large online platforms (VLOPs) and are required to do more to fight illegal and harmful content as well as counterfeit products on their platforms. Temu will soon be subject to stringent EU online content regulations under the DSA that currently affect firms like Meta, Amazon, Alibaba, Google, TikTok and X, formerly Twitter.
The European Commission said the number of users on Temu in the EU had surpassed the DSA threshold and they were in contact with Temu related to a possible DSA designation in the future. In addition, fast-fashion SHEIN last month reported 10 million average MAUs in the EU and is now in talks with the European Commission on its potential DSA status.
Supply Chain Service Provider Panex WD Completes Tens of Millions of Dollars in Series B Financing
Panex WD International Group has successfully closed a multi-million dollar Series B financing round led by Shunwei Capital.
In the global wave of Chinese brands going overseas, the company provides one-stop full-chain services from port departure, intercontinental transportation, customs clearance and declaration, overseas warehousing and value-added services, tailgate distribution to sales in destination countries.
Currently, Panex WD has served more than 5,000 core customers from over 100 countries, and have established close ties with no less than 300 domestic and overseas platforms and 5,000 offline distribution partners. The company's logistics transportation covers sea, air and land transportation, with an excellent global network of self-owned overseas warehouses covering North America, Europe, Oceania, Southeast Asia, South America and other regions, and more than 80 overseas warehouses with a total area of more than 5.5 million square feet, making it one of the largest cross-border service providers in China nowadays.
FinTech PingPong Payments Secured its Spot on the Global Unicorn Index 2024
PingPong has once again secured its spot on Global Unicorn Index 2024 alongside with industry giants including TikTok's owner ByteDance, Alibaba's Ant Group, OpenAI and SHEIN.
The Global Unicorn Index 2024 by Hurun Research Institute celebrates the world's most innovative startups, providing a glimpse into the future economy. Fintech, software services, and AI are leading the charge, transforming financial services and enterprise management solutions globally.
With over 30 branches worldwide and a payment network spanning 200+ countries and regions, PingPong Payments tailors cross-border payment solutions to reduce costs and boost efficiency for businesses. So far, the company has processed over 1 billion USD in cross-border transactions.
Alibaba's AliExpress Announced Tang Wei as Brand Ambassador in Korea
Chinese actress Tang Wei was announced as AliExpress's new brand ambassador in the Korean market. Last month, AliExpress unveiled its plan to invest 1.1 billion USD in South Korea over the next three years. The investment aims to strengthen AliExpress's foothold in Korea by expanding its operations and localizing its services through an increased workforce of Korean employees.
Over the past year, AliExpress has been actively enhancing the shopping experience for consumers with initiatives like Choice, while also doubling down on its efforts in new markets. This strategy has yielded remarkable results in Korea, where AliExpress consistently tops the charts for shopping app downloads and secured the highest number of new users in 2023.
Surpassing local giants like Gmarket and 11St in user numbers last December, AliExpress now stands as the second-largest e-commerce platform in Korea. It's noteworthy that this achievement comes amidst South Korea's staunch local protectionist policies, marking a significant presence of overseas platforms among the country's top e-commerce players for the first time.
Collectable Toys Brand Pop Mart Launches its 4th Store in Thailand
Beijing-based pop culture and art toy company Pop Mart is seeking to expand revenue from overseas by opening more stores abroad, especially focusing on Southeast Asia, said its top executive. PopMart's popularity is on fire in Thailand. Recently, the country unveiled its fourth offline store in the country.
In Q3 2023, Pop Mart opened stores in Thailand, the US and Australia. Its first store in Thailand generated sales of more than 2 million RMB (276,100 USD) on the launch day, the highest among its overseas stores globally. The company's revenue in 2023 was 0.87 billion USD, a YoY increase of 36.5%, with revenue from overseas markets surging by 134.9% to 146 million USD.
Pop Mart, founded in 2010, has in recent years enhanced its reach in more than 25 countries and regions, including South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Australia, the United States, Canada and the UK. "The Southeast Asia market has been growing rapidly, generating healthy turnover, thanks to the younger and large-scale art collector population, deep integration within the local culture, and a large number of overseas Chinese." said Moon, global president of Pop Mart.
Mala Tang Chain Yang Guo Fu Plans to Open 20 New Stores Across Europe by 2024
Yang Guo Fu, the world's largest Mala Tang chain from China with over 6000 outlets worldwide, has ramped up its international expansion efforts, setting its sights on Europe with plans to open 20 new stores across the continent by 2024. Since its overseas debut in 2017, Yang Guo Fu has rapidly expanded its footprint to over 20 countries and regions, boasting nearly a hundred overseas stores today.
In October 2023, their first flagship store in Dusseldorf, Germany made waves with record-breaking single-day sales. Following the success, Yang Guo Fu Group has forged a strategic partnership with YGF Vermögensverwaltung GmbH in Germany, a leading player in global restaurant management.
With over twenty outlets across Europe, the company's German team is poised to accelerate their expansion, aiming to fortify brand recognition and market dominance with an additional 20 stores by 2024. Yang Guo Fu Group's partner William noticed a growing trend of foreign restaurants chains in Europe, emphasizing the importance of authenticity amidst global expansion and highlighting the significance of cultural heritage and culinary tradition in winning over overseas markets.
Alibaba's Cainiao Achieves 86% Surge in Parcel Volume across Spain over the Last Quarter
Cainiao, a global leader in logistics for e-commerce owned by Alibaba, continues to strengthen its presence in Spain with three new last-mile delivery sites in Córdoba, Granada and Toledo, which are already operational. The decision responds to the strong three-digit growth the company has experienced in Spain last year, particularly in the mentioned regions where parcel volumes soared by an average of 86% in the past quarter.
Cainiao now boasts a network of 19 distribution hubs across Spain. These newly established centers strategically positioned within the industrial parks of capital cities, each sprawling over 1,600 square meters, to streamline the flow of goods by bringing them closer to urban hubs. Since its entry into the Spain in 2021, Cainiao has been on an expansion spree, further solidified by its acquisition of EcoScooting, a leading courier in Spain, in 2023.
While initially targeting Alibaba's international sales, Cainiao has its eyes set on supporting all online merchants with delivery services. Cainiao is replicating its proven Chinese market strategies in Spain, aiming to dominate the logistics scene in Spain and beyond through 24-hour express delivery services across Spain, advanced sorting centers, last-mile delivery solutions, and smart lockers.
The House Passes Legislation that could Ban TikTok in the US
The House passed legislation Saturday that would ban TikTok in the United States if the popular social media platform's China-based owner doesn't sell its stake within a year. If passed by the U.S. Senate and signed by President Joe Biden, this bill will mark a historical milestone as the first instance of the U.S. government enacting a law to shut down an entire social media platform.
Early last month, U.S. senators proposed a new bill aimed at addressing security concerns posed by foreign ownership of social media apps, which specifically takes aim at TikTok that owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Under the proposal, ByteDance would be forced to sell TikTok into American ownership, in order to ensure that U.S. user data is not being shipped back to China for political purposes.
SHEIN Revives Interest in Snapping up Topshop
SHEIN is believed to be amongst the retailers still looking to snap up Topshop from ASOS.com. Given the well publicised problems at ASOS, it could mean that a takeover by one of the fast expanding businesses is more likely. Disposing of Topshop was reported to be one of the options being considered by ASOS chief executive José Antonio Ramos Calamonte as the retailer embarks on a turnaround strategy.
ASOS paid £330 million (352 million USD) to buy Topshop, along with Topman and Miss Selfridge, from failed Arcadia in 2021. At the time, its rivals to buy the business included Next, Frasers Group and SHEIN. Last year, ASOS has reportedly considered selling Topshop in the face of its own widening losses and ballooning debt, although nothing happened at the time, even though SHEIN and Authentic were said to be interested.
SHEIN's interest in Topshop comes as the fashion giant considers a possible listing in New York or London, following exponential growth in the last few years. Its profits have more than doubled, reaching 2 billion USD in 2023 with 45 billion USD in GMV.
SHEIN & TEMU's Logistics Partner Uni Express Secures $50M Investment
Chinese logistics networks have piggybacked the rise of Chinese e-commerce players in Southeast Asia, and now the same could happen in the US. Uni Express, a delivery startup used by Chinese e-commerce giants Shein and Temu, raised 50 million USD to fund its expansion across North America.
The four-year-old company has already expanded into Canada where, combined with the US, it claims to have 50 sorting centres, 500 employees and over 10,000 registered drivers. The company has been shooting for a billion-dollar valuation — echoing the vanity-led goals that Southeast Asia's startup delivery networks have shot for in recent years — so it'll be one to track as it looks to compete with the establishment in North America. So far, it has raised 100 million USD but there's likely to be much more to come.