Thu Huong Le · · 7 min readJD wiggling into SEA; the fashion industry’s unlikely savior
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Hi there,
As tech writers, we are often intrigued by companies that don’t broadcast their every move.
Chinese online retailer JD.com has an impressive market value of about US$122 billion. At home, it has weathered the prolonged tech crackdown well, with its US-listed shares rising nearly 10% in the last six months. In comparison, shares of Alibaba and Pinduoduo have fallen about 40% and 50%, respectively, during the same period.
Unlike Alibaba, JD.com generally keeps a low profile in Southeast Asia. Its subsidiary in Indonesia, JD.id, has been opening more offline stores in the archipelago even amid the pandemic. In 2018, the Chinese retail giant made an early bet on Vietnamese ecommerce major Tiki, which has become one of the country’s rare soonicorns.
JD.com, unlike Shopee and Lazada, adopts a hybrid marketplace and direct retail model powered by an in-house logistics system. Much like its domestic competitors, the company is also looking to get a bigger slice of Southeast Asia’s booming digital economy.
Similar to Amazon, JD.com also wants to tackle the higher-quality segment of products. But Amazon hasn’t really cracked Southeast Asia, while Lazada is splurging to keep up with market leader Shopee.
Does JD.com have any room left to play in the region? Tech in Asia’s Tianwen attempts to answer this question in this week’s Big Story, which is also our last for this year as we take a two-week break to celebrate the year-end festivities.
With the festive season upon us, some of you might be pondering what to wear. Please allow me to add another option: digital fashion. They’re not real clothes but can guarantee that you’ll look fit and cool on social media.
Like what we’ve put in this week’s Hot Take, virtual clothes might be able to solve the fashion industry’s long-term waste problem.
Cheers,
— Huong
THE BIG STORY
Can JD.com make a splash in SEA?
Image credit: Timmy Loen
THE HOT TAKE
NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW
FYI
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