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Editor's note: The e-commerce industry is booming, ushering in a revolution that rocks traditional shops and grocery stores. Online shopping has largely changed people’s lifestyles, where tasks that once took hours can now be done with a few mouse clicks. In a jungle where online retailers are vying for customers’ attention, who will be the winner?
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Battle for buyers heats up among e-commerce giants It's a summer of competition everywhere. While a soccer championships in Europe arouses spectators' enthusiasm, Chinese e-commerce websites are waging a battle of their own for consumers' eyeballs. New price war among Internet retailers A new price war has broken out as cash-abundant e-commerce sites, enjoying a round of fresh financing from private equity firms, seek a share of an explosion in online shopping. Online retailers go head-to-head China's e-book industry has become the latest battlefield for the nation's top online retail giants while most publishers and industry insiders are playing wait and see.
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--Lei Jun, chief executive officer of Xiaomi Corp --Zhou Hongyi, chairman of Qihoo 360 Technology Co --Ma Huateng, chief executive officer of Tencent Holdings Ltd |
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 Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi Corp secured $216 million during its latest round of financing, the company's founder and president said. Company president Lei Jun said the funding came from "leading international investment firms" but did not...[Full stroy]
Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi Corp, and Zhou Hongyi, chairman of the Chinese online security software developer Qihoo 360 Technology Co, lost their tempers and criticized each other on micro blogs. On May 15, when Xiaomi released its youth version smartphone at 1,499 yuan ($235), Qihoo 360 announced a partnership...[Full story]
New mobile phone players, including Xiaomi, Shanda and Qihoo 360 Technology Co, do not expect to make profit by selling hardware. "They dreamed of copying the success of Apple to make money from providing software and various applications...[Full story]
A high-profile dispute over online monopoly between China's Internet giants hit the off-line world during a court hearing in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on Wednesday. Tencent Holdings, China's largest instant messaging service provider, was accused in the Guangdong High People's Court on Wednesday of abusing...[Full story] |
  NetEase asks Tencent to withdraw copycat appThe 2.0 version of Tencent Holdings Ltd's news app for the iPhone was a complete duplicate of NetEase's product, NetEase said in announcement on April 12. NetEase said Tencent's product directly copied the design and functions of its news app, including the layout, and the webpages for follow-up and pictures. It asked Tencent to voluntarily pull out the copycat app from the App Store. Tencent said its app is based on interactive design modules recommended by Apple Inc.
Dianping.com, China's largest user-generated and edited urban consumption portal, said NetEase's mobile app "fanfan", a restaurant recommendation engine, copied contents compiled by Dianping, including basic information, specialties and recommended dishes of different restaurants. Jin Lei, vice operating executive of NetEase's Youdao, said fanfan's business model was completely different from Dianping, and there was no infringement of contents. Unlike Dianping, Fanfan offers personalized search results for each individual user, and information about restaurants is accessible as it is being published. "If there are issues relating to copyrights, then the copyrights belong to the restaurants, instead of Dianping," said Jin, "and NetEase will not withdraw the app." |
Dianping and NetEase in app dispute
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Compared with most public company CEOs, who are usually reserved and mannered, Li Guoqing, the co-founder and chief executive officer of E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc looks is outspoken, straightforward and sometimes bad-tempered. "It's a scarce resource in society, and I should play this role," he said, referring to some public comment he made on commercial affairs. [Full story]
E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc may join hands with Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd, the electronics retailer, to develop its product portfolio in the face of increasing challenges from competitors.[Full story]
E-commerce China Dangdang Inc started selling e-books, offering 50,000 titles from 200 publishers, and the number of e-book titles is expected to exceed 100,000, since Dangdang is in talks with 100 more publishers. [Full story] |
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Jingdong Mall, a major Chinese online retailer, has been in and out of the spotlight. With the aggressive expansion of its business portfolio, frequent changes in senior management, and rumored plans for going public, Jingdong enjoys both admiration as a possible Chinese answer to Amazon Inc and doubts about problems with its rapid expansion. [Full story]
360buy.com, the largest online store in China by market share, plans to spend 8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) on improving its logistics and customer services over the next five years, after receiving an investment of $500 million from several venture capital companies. [Full story]
Jingdong Mall is planning to launch an e-book service to tap into China's emerging e-book market. The service will offer more than 80,000 e-books upon being launched, with a goal of offering 300,000 e-books by the end of the year. [Full story] | |
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Amazon China's strategy has turned more aggressive with more investment from its US-based headquarters in Seattle. Billboards and TV ads remind Chinese consumers that Amazon China is not only an online bookstore, but also an online mall. It also plans to bring more international approaches to China, including the hotly discussed Kindle Fire. [Full story]
Amazon.com Inc, the world's largest e-commerce company by market share, announced the opening of its latest order-fulfillment center in Kunshan, Jiangsu province. It also announced a new name for its Chinese operation and a shorter domain address. The former Joyo Amazon is now Amazon China and its shortened domain address, z.cn, will link to amazon.cn, the official website of Amazon China. [Full story] |
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The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd expects the value of the transactions conducted on its two online shopping arms, Taobao.com and Tmall.com, to hit 3 trillion yuan in the next three to five years. [Full story]
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd plans to spend 300 million yuan on summer promotions for goods sold through its Tmall. The website, which operates a marketplace similar to eBay Inc's, is subsidizing its vendors' deals for their customers. [Full story]
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has launched a book-selling service through its subsidiary Tmall.com, which will put it head-to-head with competitors including bookseller-turned e-commerce operator E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc and the Chinese branch of Amazon.com Inc. [Full story] |
Outspoken, straightforward 
Dangdang and Gome to cooperate
New chapter for Dangdang 
Full speed ahead for 360buy 
360buy reaches out in logisitics
Jingdong Mall to tap e-book market 
New name, same game
Amazon to ring the changes
Alibaba eyes rapid growth in next 5 yrs
Tmall to offer customers $47m
Alibaba turns to next page
E-commerce rakes in 5.9t yuanChina's e-commerce trade volumne totaled 5.88 trillion yuan in 2011, 29.2 percent more than that in the previous year, and contributed 12.5 percent to the nation's gross domestic product, said Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) Jiang Yaoping on Tuesday in Beijing.
The country recorded 750 billion yuan in online retail sales last year, which contributed more than 4 percent to total retail sales of consumer goods, said Jiang at the China E-Commerce Conference. [Full story]
China to top online retail in 2013 
Investors netted by appeal of new Internet firms
China's Internet ad reaches 14b yuan in Q1
Chinese Internet users to hit 800m by 2015
China aims to make its Internet services accessible to more people in the coming years and bring its total number of Internet users to 800 million by 2015, according to a national development plan.
The number, which accounts for around 57 percent of the total population, includes 200 million netizens in rural areas, according to an Internet development plan for the 2011-2015 period unveiled Friday by the Ministry of Information and Information Technology (MIIT). [Full story]
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