China’s e-commerce sector set for rapid growth as consumers go online for daily essentials

The market for so-called fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) is so large that it will support high sales growth for both Alibaba and JD.com as they take business away from offline  stores in the coming years, according to a report published by Goldman Sachs.
--
FMCG accounts for 37 per cent of all retail spending in the mainland, and the market is expected to expand by an average of 6 per cent annually before reaching US$2 trillion in 2020.
--
Fresh food has presented a challenge to online retailers globally, due to the high costs of cold-chain delivery and the low shipping fee consumers are prepared to pay.
Amazon rolled out its food delivery offering, AmazonFresh, in the US in 2007 but the 24-hour delivery service is still only available in a few cities after 10 years of testing.
--
In China, just 2 per cent of fresh food is purchased online.
http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2079085/chinas-e-commerce-sector-set-rapid-growth-consumers-go-online

Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent dominate China’s red-hot digital advertising market

New York-listed Alibaba, which owns the Post, is expected to draw almost one-third of total digital ad spending in China this year – a figure eMarketer estimated as equivalent to US$16 billion, up from US$11.9 billion last year.
--
Chinese online search titan Baidu’s digital advertising revenue this year is estimated to hit US$9.4 billion, with mobile advertising making up US$6.4 billion of that amount, according to eMarketer.
--
Tencent, China’s largest online games and social network operator, is predicted to record US$6 billion in digital advertising revenue this year, lifted by US$4.9 billion in mobile advertising revenue.

http://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/2076802/alibaba-baidu-tencent-dominate-chinas-red-hot-digital-advertising

ZTE kick-starts global race to 5G with advanced equipment geared for deployment from 2018

“Pre5G” solutions enable operators to emulate the performance of 5G networks on existing 4G infrastructure, and are easily upgradable to 5G in future when the universal standards for the mobile system are completed, according to ZTE.

--

 The new mmWave and sub-6Ghz mobile base stations launched by ZTE in Barcelona use so-called beam tracking, beam forming, massive multiple input, multiple output and other key technologies behind future 5G networks.

--

The International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations agency, expects to reach agreement for a single global 5G standard between 2019 and 2020.

http://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/2074791/zte-kick-starts-global-race-5g-advanced-equipment-geared-deployment 

 

Taiwan, Singapore widen lead over Hong Kong on digital ad spending, says report

Digital media, comprising online interactive and mobile platforms, accounted for a 13 per cent share of total advertising spending in Hong Kong last year, according to admanGo.

http://www.scmp.com/tech/enterprises/article/2068208/taiwan-singapore-widen-lead-over-hong-kong-digital-ad-spending-says 

 

Meitu confident of global success despite bumps in the road

The past two and a half months has been a both a tough and exciting time for Chinese technology company Meitu.

--

“Few Chinese companies can reach overseas users,” company chairman Cai Wensheng said on Monday. “Meitu will be the leading one.”

Cai said Meitu now has over 430 million users abroad.
--
Yu Jianpeng, an analyst at ICBC, said Meitu will find its apps more difficult to attract advertisers compared to social networking platforms. 
“Meitu is basically an editing tool,” he said. “It has a large number of users, but they don’t open it frequently. Investors still can’t see a clear way for it to better monetize its traffic.”
http://www.scmp.com/business/article/2068537/meitu-confident-global-success-despite-bumps-road
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mt.mtxx.mtxx&hl=sv

End of the boom? ‘Explosive shopping’ by Chinese tourists in Japan may be on the wane

Per capita spending by mainland tourists in Japan is down almost 19 per cent, as luxury items become more available in China.

 --

The heady days of Chinese travellers arriving in a shopping district in one of Japan’s major cities and stripping the shelves of the nearest stores appear to be over.

--

The extravagant spending habits of cash-rich mainland Chinese in Japan was even given its own expression, “bakugai”, meaning “explosive shopping”.

But while visitor numbers continue to climb, hitting 24.04 million in 2016, up 22 per cent from the previous year and surpassing the 20 million mark for the first time.
--
And while mainland Chinese remain the biggest spenders, splashing out an average of 227,821 yen (HK$15,500) per person during their stay, that figure was also down 18.9 per cent from a year earlier.
http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2062513/end-boom-explosive-shopping-chinese-tourists-japan-may-be-wane

 

Flying high on China’s travel boom

Unlike major players in the sector such as Ctrip and Qunar which focus on flight and hotel booking business, Nasdaq-listed Tuniu mainly targets tour group sales and package tours.

--

Tuniu is also different from its peers in that it targets predominantly leisure travellers only.

The company is well-known for its ability to customise tours and explore new attractions to cater for what has become the increasingly diversified demands of Chinese tourists.

Last year, it also set up its own media company to produce TV programmes to promote the tourism industry.

http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1996629/flying-high-chinas-travel-boom