Weekly Business Roundup #6

May 26, 2024

Fifty-nine brands, including Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, and Vivo, each sold more than CNY 100 million (USD 14 million) worth of products on Tmall in the first four hours of the 618 shopping festival. This year, the country’s e-commerce giants switched to spot sales for the event instead of the presales model used in previous years.
China’s online retail sales rose 11.5% year-over-year to CNY 4.41 trillion (USD 609 billion) in the first four months of the year, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Online retail sales of physical goods reached CNY 3.74 trillion, accounting for 23.9% of total retail sales of consumer goods.
China’s unemployment rate for people aged 16-24, excluding students, was 14.7% in April, the NBS said today. The adjusted jobless rate for people aged 25-29 was 7.1%, while for those aged 30-59 it was 4%.
Alibaba’s Freshippo to close one of only two members-only stores in Beijing.

Boss Zhipin’s revenue jumped 33% year-over-year in the first quarter to CNY 1.7 billion (USD 236 million), beating expectations, according to the Chinese job-hunting platform’s latest earnings report. Non-GAAP net profit soared more than six-fold to CNY 531 million (USD 74 million).
TikTok plans to lay off a significant number of its approximately 1,000 employees in the operations, content, and marketing departments, following earlier cuts at the beginning of the year, staffers told The Information today. The short-video platform may also face a ban in the US.
More than 50 publishers have refused to participate in JD.Com’s midyear shopping festival, stating that the Chinese online retailer’s proposed discounts of up to 80 percent would not cover the cost of the books.

AlibabaCloud has expanded its partnership with LVMH. The French luxury group will leverage Alibaba’s cloud services and artificial intelligence technologies. They also announced the launch of its first cloud region in Mexico and plans to set up more data centers in key markets including Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and South Korea over the next three years. This initiative aims to enhance the cloud and AI product suite for global customers.
Alibaba has injected USD 230 million into Lazada, bringing its total investment in Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce platform to USD 7.7 billion since acquiring it in 2016.

Tencent's cloud unit announced that the "lite" version of its LLM, "Hunyuan" is now free, with prices for more advanced versions slashed by 50% to 88%. Baidu has announced that its two key ERNIE models, ERNIE Speed and ERNIE Lite, are now available for free.
Kuaishou’s first-quarter revenue was 29.41 billion yuan, net profit reached 4.12 billion yuan, and the average monthly active users totaled 700 million. Middle-aged and elderly consumers have emerged as Kuaishou’s main shopping force, contributing over 47% to the GMV in 2023. I will write a more detailed analysis soon here on my substack.
China’s SMIC has overtaken GlobalFoundries to become the world’s third-largest chip foundry, holding a 6% market share in the first quarter, according to Counterpoint Research. It now ranks behind TSMC with a 62% share and Samsung with a 13% share.
Alibaba’s shares plunged 5.8% as of 3:50 p.m. after Bloomberg News reported that the Chinese e-commerce giant is considering selling convertible bonds to raise USD 5 billion to fund share repurchases and boost growth.

Bilibili’s Q1 revenue reached 5.66 billion yuan, marking a 12% increase year-over-year, with the gaming business contributing 980 million yuan. However losses widen by 21%. The platform set new records with 102 million daily active users and 341 million monthly active users.
Xiaomi has released its latest financial data, reporting a Q1 total revenue of 75.5 billion yuan, a 27.0% increase year-on-year, and an adjusted net profit of 6.5 billion yuan, up 100.8% year-on-year. The company also launched its first smart electric vehicle series, Xiaomi SU7, securing 88,063 orders and delivering 10,000 new cars.
Cotti Coffee is set to extend its CNY9.9 (USD1.37) coffee campaign for three years. Founded by Charles Lu, former chairman of Luckin Coffee, Cotti had over 7,000 stores worldwide as of the end of February. Yes, you heard that right - the fraudster from Luckin Coffee, Charles Lu, is back in the coffee business with Cotti Coffee.
CNOOC announced today that it has signed an oil exploration and production deal with Mozambique’s Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy and local energy firm ENH. The agreement covers five offshore blocks in the country, spanning an area of 29,000 square kilometers.

The Great Wall Street