China’s e-commerce shake-up: TikTok sister app Douyin woos merchants in direct assault on Alibaba, Pinduoduo
- Douyin E-commerce launched an offline event in a bid to bring more merchants to its platform, challenging larger online retail platforms
- Live-streaming e-commerce has become a popular method of online sales, and Douyin has many of the industry’s top sellers
Beijing-based ByteDance, the world’s most valuable start-up at US$400 billion, is wooing merchants to its premier short-video platform by touting the benefits of selling on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, in a bid to challenge the country’s larger online retail platforms.
The platform, Douyin E-commerce, staged its first official “ecosystem conference”, an offline event that puts the ByteDance-owned platform on a collision course with Chinese e-commerce giants Pinduoduo, JD.com and Alibaba Group Holding, the owner of the South China Morning Post.
Douyin E-commerce vice-president Mu Qing said in Guangzhou that the platform will cultivate at least 1,000 businesses with annual sales above 100 million yuan (US$15.3 million) in 2021, 10,000 individual merchants with annual sales of more than 10 million yuan, and at least 100 “hot” products with annual sales above 100 million yuan.
“The story of Douyin E-commerce has just started, and we hope to grow with you together,” said Douyin E-commerce head Bob Kang Zeyu, according to a transcript of his speech.
“We have 600 million daily active users and the largest group of domestic content creators,” he said. “We are also confident in our ability to offer recommendations based on personal interests, and there is a big chance for us to do it well.”
