If you keep tabs on the Chinese ecommerce industry, you’ll almost certainly be familiar with the “big two” of Chinese ecommerce: Alibaba and JD.com.
Alibaba is one of the largest internet companies in China (and the world), and is the company behind some of China’s biggest ecommerce platforms, including Taobao Marketplace, Tmall and AliExpress. JD.com is its main competitor, and also owns the online grocery business Yihaodian, formerly owned by Walmart.
Between them, the two companies have captured close to 73% of Chinese ecommerce sales and have investments in a number of other retail companies. But although they have a huge amount of combined clout, it’s a mistake to assume that Alibaba and JD.com are the only two players in Chinese ecommerce worth knowing about.
For example, in November, four months after shuttering its domestic marketplace in China, Amazon announced that it would be opening up a temporary pop-up shop during the holiday period – in partnership with social commerce start-up Pinduoduo. While it only launched in 2015, Pinduoduo has rapidly risen to become one of the most important companies in Chinese ecommerce, giving Alibaba and JD.com a run for their money and prompting them both to expand into the rural communities where Pinduoduo has been so popular.
In this article, we’ll round up some of the players in Chinese ecommerce other than Alibaba and JD.com who are worth paying attention to. Some are up-and-comers to keep an eye on, while others are veterans who have been around since the early days of Chinese ecommerce and have evolved with the times. All of them are important names to know for anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the Chinese ecommerce landscape.