Chinese tech giants chase expansion in Brazil amid global trade pressures

Business Standard

4 hours ago

Chinese companies urgently need to find new markets. Competition is intense at home, where the collapse of the real estate market has left consumers reluctant to spend. And escalating trade tensions have made it more difficult and costly to sell things in the United States and Europe, long two of the largest destinations for Chinese exports.
As a result, some of China's biggest internet and e-commerce brands have set their sights on establishing themselves as household names in other parts of the world, like Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South America.
Brazil has emerged as the most coveted prize. Latin America's largest economy, with a population of more than 200 million people, is a beacon for China's delivery and ride-hailing companies looking to export their ruthlessly low-cost business models. Chinese e-commerce giants also see promise in Brazil as they seek new buyers for a flood of products after tariffs and other restrictions in the United States shut off their biggest export market.
Meituan, China's largest food delivery company, said in May that it would spend $1 billion to set up operations in Brazil. Mixue, the Chinese tea and dessert company that has eclipsed McDonald's as the world's biggest fast food chain, said it would hire thousands there. TikTok Shop, facing scrutiny in the United States and Britain about its Chinese parent company, launched in Brazil in May.
'Chinese companies are finding it harder to grow domestically,' said Vey-Sern Ling, an equities adviser in Singapore at the private bank Union Bancaire Privée. 'Exports and overseas expansion is one way to support continued growth.'
Chinese interest in Brazil comes as the two countries deepen their economic ties. The overall value of trade between China and Brazil roughly doubled over the past decade, as Chinese companies bought Brazilian soybeans and consumers in Brazil bought Chinese cars and electronics.
Last month, while officials from Washington and Beijing were haggling over whether to roll back tariffs that had brought their trade to a standstill, Chinese companies announced plans to invest about $4.7 billion in Brazil. The investments include mining and renewable energy projects and expanded automotive manufacturing.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil also met with China's leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing. The two leaders have positioned their relationship as a counterweight to US influence.
Analysts say the good will has given Chinese consumer companies confidence to bet on Brazil. 'The relationship between the two countries is really good, and they expect it to be good for a while,' said Jianggan Li, the chief executive of Momentum Works, a consultancy in Singapore.
But Chinese companies are not assured of success in Brazil. Their tactics may draw scrutiny from regulators as they try to attract customers and hire local workers, said Li, who was previously an executive at Food Panda, which competes in Hong Kong with Meituan's food delivery service, Keeta.
Meituan is known for its cutthroat approach. In China, it operated at a loss for years while offering shoppers steep discounts in order to undercut competitors. In 2023, the company launched Keeta in Hong Kong, its first foray outside mainland China. In less than two years, Keeta drove one of Hong Kong's main food delivery platforms, Deliveroo, out of the market.
Meituan deployed similar tactics last year when it rolled out Keeta in Saudi Arabia, where it quickly became the dominant delivery platform in most major cities.
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Analysts expect Meituan to operate the same way in Brazil. The company's focus will not be on turning a profit, but instead be on becoming the delivery app used by the highest number of people.
'When the Chinese companies go abroad, making money is the secondary priority — they want to dominate the market first,' said Heatherm Huang, a co-founder of Measurable AI, a Hong Kong-based tech company that analyzes online shopping data for financial firms.
Many Chinese consumer brands have already made inroads in Brazil. The country is one of the largest markets for the fast-fashion retailer Shein, which has built three warehouses near São Paulo.
Didi, known for running Uber out of China, took over a Brazilian start-up called 99 in 2018 and has been one of the main ride-hailing business in the country since.
Temu, the international arm of the Chinese e-commerce firm Pinduoduo, started selling products to Brazilians last year. Temu's main gimmick has been to tell shoppers that they are getting items at steep discounts, often 70 per cent or more.
The push to expand in places like Brazil is driven in part by increased competition in China, and restrictions and regulatory scrutiny in other major markets.
Chinese e-commerce companies like Temu and Shein took a major hit in the United States last month when the Trump administration ended a policy that had allowed low-value packages from China to enter the country tax-free. Lawmakers in the European Union are debating a similar change.
In Brazil, shipments from Temu and Shein have been hit with a tax on packages worth less than $50 since last year. But at 20 percent, the tax is less than half the rate now charged by the United States.
The business models pioneered by Meituan and other Chinese internet companies have also raised concerns among Chinese regulators about the handling of user data and the treatment of delivery drivers.
Last year, a driver who worked such long delivery shifts that fellow drivers referred to him as the 'order king' died while taking a break between deliveries, according to Chinese social media. After another driver fainted on the job and was hospitalised, Meituan published a report that said most of its drivers did not work such intense hours and made wages comparable to average salaries.
These sorts of incidents have prompted the Chinese government to issue rules for how e-commerce companies manage delivery workers.
In February, competition intensified when the e-commerce giant JD launched a food delivery service in China. It and Meituan have tried to lure drivers from each other by offering increasingly generous, and costly, benefits. Meituan, Mixue and Temu did not respond to requests for comment.
'The golden time for Meituan's food delivery business in China may be over,' said Ernan Cui, a consumer analyst at the research firm Gavekal Dragonomics in Beijing. Stricter regulation and tougher competition are 'all adding pressure,' she said.
China's stagnant consumer economy is another reason Chinese companies believe expanding in places like Brazil is worth the risk, said Li of Momentum Works. 'Finding extra growth in China is getting harder and harder,' he said.