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Ecommerce giants Alibaba, JD.com and Pinduoduo are leading Chinese internet groups in launching multibillion-dollar initiatives to help traditional exporters switch to domestic sales, as part of a national campaign to cushion the countryโs economy from an escalating trade war with the US.ย
Alibaba has set up a task force to source goods from exporters in more than 10 provinces across China. Taobao and Tmall, its ecommerce marketplaces, have promised to offer higher commissions and better exposure on their platforms to encourage at least 10,000 exporters to sell 100,000 items. Alibabaโs supermarket chain Freshippo also said it had created special โgreen channelsโ for export suppliers to sell their products on its shelves.ย
Pinduoduo had earlier responded to sellers on its international arm Temu being hit by the ending on May 2 of โde minimisโ duty exemptions on packages to the US. It promised to invest Rmb100bn ($13.7bn) to help its merchants โpivot and upgradeโ.ย
โWe are determined to shoulder the costs and risksโ.โ.โ.โand to navigate the uncertainties in the external market environment,โ Pinduoduoโs co-chief executive Zhao Jiazhen said. โWeโll prioritise ensuring the stable development and healthy profits of small and medium-sized manufacturers.โ
As well as the cancelling of the โde minimisโ duty exemption on small packages worth less than $800, Chinese sellers face tariffs of 125 per cent on many of the goods they have been shipping to the US, making such sales uneconomical.
Elsewhere, online retail platform JD.com has announced a Rmb200bn fund to procure products from local exporters over the next year, with WeChat owner Tencent, delivery service Meituan and ByteDance, owner of the TikTok and Douyin short video apps, also launching similar programmes.ย
Search engine group Baidu said it would allow 1mn companies to advertise products in its livestreams with the help of its AI-generated โvirtual humansโ for free. Ride-hailing app DiDi planned to invest Rmb2bn to โstabilise employment and boost consumptionโ as well as support domestic manufacturers to โgo globalโ, it said.ย
Li Chengdong, founder of Beijing-based ecommerce consultancy Haitun, said โpoliticalโ considerations had driven Chinese tech giants to โvoluntarily take on social responsibilitiesโ.ย
โA sense of anti-US unity has prompted each Chinese company to do whatever it is capable of,โ said Li. โStepping in at this critical juncture also brings them reputational benefits.โย
Li pointed out that no official intervention is necessary, as companiesโ โpolitical sensitivityโ is strong enough to guide such decisions.ย
โConsumers are also keeping a close eye on these [tech giants],โ he added. โThey must pay attention to public opinions and make shrewd commercial choices.โ
Chinese tech groups have been reined in and reminded of their social responsibilities by Beijing since a government crackdown in 2020. President Xi Jinping met leading entrepreneurs in February, including Alibabaโs Jack Ma, Tencentโs Pony Ma and Meituanโs Wan Xing, in a sign that the sector was back in favour.ย
Amid a sluggish economy and Trumpโs punitive tariffs, the Chinese government has intensified its own efforts to counter looming disruption. The commerce ministry recently held talks with trade associations, supermarket chains and distributors on how to help exporters explore domestic sales channels.ย In a meeting in Beijing attended by vice minister Sheng Qiuping on Friday, the ministry promised to help domestic businesses cope with the โexternal shockโ.
There has also been evidence of patriotic buying by Chinese consumers and organised support for the countryโs stock markets from a โnational teamโ of state-owned funds investing and companies buying back shares.
