Latest news with #SophieYu
Business of Fashion
13-05-2025
- Business
- Business of Fashion
China's JD.com Beats Quarterly Revenue Estimates
Chinese e-commerce retailer topped market estimates for quarterly revenue on Tuesday, in a sign of steady demand even as US tariffs and prolonged economic weakness weighed on consumer sentiment. Consumer demand in China has faced a series of hurdles in recent years, with a prolonged property sector crisis and high unemployment rates never allowing for a full recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. But e-commerce players such as and Alibaba, which reports quarterly results on Friday, have resorted to slapping heavy discounts and cutting product prices to lure shoppers, while also leaning on government subsidies to drive consumption. That has helped a major retailer of home appliances in China, even as consumer sentiment took a hit from US-China trade tensions. China's retail sales growth also quickened in January and February. reported total revenue of 301.08 billion yuan ($41.82 billion) for the quarter ended March 31, up 15.8 percent from a year earlier. Analysts' estimate was 289.22 billion yuan, according to data compiled by LSEG. The coming shopping festival, dubbed as 618 as it falls on June 18, will be a barometer to gauge to what extent consumer demand in the country has recovered. The online shopping event, initiated by is becoming longer and longer. This year, Taobao already started the 618 pre-sale on Tuesday, while whose official start date of 618 is May 31, announced an event called the 'Heartbeat Shopping Festival' which began on Tuesday. Jacob Cooke, CEO of e-commerce consultancy WPIC Marketing + Technologies, said he expects sales growth during this year's 618. 'China's consumer confidence has shown greenshoots in 2025, with healthy retail growth the last few months and strong travel numbers on May Day and the Qingming Festival,' he said. US-listed shares fell more than 1 percent in premarket trading, pulling back after rising 6.5 percent on Monday on news of the US-China trade deal. By Sophie Yu in Beijing and Deborah Sophia; Edited by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Susan Fenton Learn more: Sales Rise Most in Years After China Consumers Awaken The retailer reported its fastest revenue growth in nearly three years, driven by Beijing's supportive policies, with a 13 percent increase in sales for the December quarter.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chinese e-commerce giants make expensive bets on fast deliveries
By Casey Hall and Sophie Yu SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba and have opened a new front in the ongoing battle for market share, with both expanding aggressively into so-called instant retail centred around delivery speeds of 30 to 60 minutes this year. Investors will be dissecting the strategy when reports its quarterly earnings on Tuesday and Alibaba on Thursday, as finding new avenues for growth has proven challenging for China's largest online retailers. Their market penetration is already high and prices for goods are under pressure due to a consumer slowdown driven by concerns about employment and wages as well as a prolonged property market downturn. The new turf war focused on speed is coming at a high cost in the short term as the e-commerce giants look to entice consumers with hefty discounts. JD Takeaway and Alibaba's food delivery app last month each pledged 10 billion yuan ($1.38 billion) in subsidies. JD Takeaway said it would invest the sum over a year, while did not disclose the timeframe. "The competition is so intense, there's not a lot of incremental growth opportunities, so everybody is moving into everybody else's territories and instant retail is the latest example of that," said Jason Yu, general manager at CTR Market Research. China's food delivery market leader Meituan has moved to grow its business by expanding its instashopping platform, which delivers non-food goods within 30 minutes and announced its entry into food delivery in February. "In the past people would go to to buy a mobile phone and they would deliver to you in the same day, then suddenly they could go to Meituan and have the new Apple iPhone delivered within 30 minutes. That posed a direct threat to and they moved into food delivery in response," Yu said. At the end of April, Alibaba expanded its instant shopping portal on its domestic e-commerce app Taobao. That gave users access to restaurants, coffee shops and bubble tea chains available on Alibaba's - China's second-largest food delivery player behind Meituan - plus many other categories including pet food and apparel. Alibaba, and Meituan did not respond to requests for comment. Subsidised spending on instant retail from Alibaba and is being welcomed by cost-conscious consumers. Users on JD Takeaway currently enjoy discounts of up to 20 yuan, or $2.77, per day for deliveries from restaurants including McDonald's, Haidilao and Burger King. On Taobao's instant shopping portal, consumers can receive a discount of 11 yuan on a bill of at least 15 yuan. Liu Qi, 24, a small business owner in Tianjin, said he was pleased when he recently bought a coconut latte on JD Takeaway for only 5.9 yuan. "I asked the deliveryman and he said he makes 4 yuan per delivery, so essentially, bought me a cup of coffee and delivered it to my door," Liu said. He was even more surprised days later when he bought a coffee on Taobao's instant shopping portal for only 3.9 yuan. "It was 2 yuan cheaper than he said. WAR CHESTS While subsidising consumer discounts for instant retail is expensive, China's e-commerce giants have significant cash reserves. As of December 31, Alibaba, and Meituan had net cash positions of 400 billion, 144 billion and 110 billion yuan respectively, according to Morningstar analysts. And despite the low margins inherent in the business, a renewed focus on instant retail made sense for and Alibaba in part because both firms have armies of couriers already at their disposal, analysts said. That means there is no need for an expensive build-out of delivery infrastructure as would be required for other potential entrants like Temu-owner PDD Holdings. Beijing-based independent industry analyst Liu Xingliang said Alibaba and were leveraging high-frequency demand for food, coffee and bubble tea to boost lower-frequency demand for clothing, electronics and other higher-margin purchases - betting that if consumers open their apps more often, they might buy more overall. For the expansion into instant retail was particularly important given its traditional e-commerce business appeared to have hit a ceiling, he said. "It must try to gain market share in new business areas." ($1 = 7.2194 Chinese yuan renminbi) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
China's official media welcome US tariff deal, others sceptical
By Sophie Yu and Farah Master BEIJING/ HONG KONG (Reuters) -A tariff deal between the United States and China on Monday was greeted with scepticism on Chinese social media, while official commentary welcomed the news. Speaking after talks with Chinese officials in Geneva, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two sides had agreed a 90-day pause and tariffs would be reduced by over 100 percentage points to a 10% baseline rate. "I'm just afraid that Trump might change his mind at any time, after all he is not normal," one user called Qijie wrote on China's social media platform Weibo. "Those Americans, especially that fool Trump, are simply not trustworthy! Beware of their fickleness," said another user called Wu. Both posts generated thousands of likes. Since taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump has increased tariffs paid by U.S. importers for goods from China to 145%, in addition to those he imposed on many Chinese goods during his first term and the duties the Biden administration levied. China responded with export curbs on some rare earth elements, vital for U.S. manufacturers of weapons and electronic consumer goods, and by raising tariffs on U.S. goods to 125%. Behind closed doors, Chinese officials had grown alarmed about the economic impact of tariffs and the risk of isolation as China's trading partners started negotiating deals with Washington, according to three officials familiar with Beijing's thinking. As Chinese state media praised the deal, a commentary by public broadcaster CCTV said the meeting between China and the U.S. in Geneva was "balanced and beneficial to both sides". "The atmosphere of the talks was candid, in-depth and constructive and substantial progress was made and important consensus was reached," it said on Tencent's Wechat social media platform. Chinese commentator Hu Xijin, a former editor of state newspaper Global Times, said on his Wechat account the joint statement from China and the U.S. was historic. China and the U.S. "can handle major disputes in an equal and mutually respectful manner," he said, adding the result was "also a victory for international trade rules and due order". Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Yahoo
Surge in trips expected for Chinese holiday, but travellers keep budgets tight
By Sophie Yu and Casey Hall BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Trip numbers are set to reach a three-year post-COVID high during China's upcoming May Day public holidays, travel firms say. The holiday, which begins on May 1 and lasts for five days, is a prime time for travel, with pleasant spring weather making it more appealing than the wintery Lunar New Year break. Domestic travel in China has boomed since the end of the country's pandemic-era restrictions, but while more people are taking a holiday many are keeping a tight rein on spending amid an economic slowdown and concern about employment and wage stagnation. Liu Xiaoting, a 32-year-old bank employee, plans to travel to Hebei, a province close to her home in Beijing. "I'll drive with friends to Handan to visit the grottoes there," she said, adding that part of the appeal of the trip was the "minimal" spending required. "Hotels in Handan cost just 300 to 400 yuan ($41 - $55) even during the holiday. As the Chinese saying goes, we want to 'spend a little, accomplish a lot'." The tighter budgets have led to a surge in visits to more affordable smaller cities and villages, as well as road trips and camping holidays. BOOKING BOOM Tuniu, a leading Chinese online travel agent, reported that as of mid-April, domestic travel bookings for the May Day holiday were more than double the same period last year. Beijing-based travel operator UTour Group said, as of April 15, the gross merchandise volume (GMV, a common measure of online sales) on its platform had increased by about 65% year-on-year. Travel information provider Umetrip also said that as of April 17, the number of domestic flight tickets booked for the May Day holiday was more than 3.33 million, marking a 36% increase compared to last year. International flight ticket bookings on Umetrip have risen by about 25%. International travel, meanwhile, is dominated by short-haul routes, with Japan and the UAE both emerging as popular destinations according to pre-holiday data. Even a warning last month from China's embassy urging Chinese travellers to enhance safety precautions and pay attention to personal and food hygiene does not seem to have deterred holidaymakers. "Japan has long-established a reputation of being clean, mature, and safe," said Su Shu, founder of Chinese firm Moment Travel in Chengdu. "Our tourists are not impacted by the warnings, especially those who have visited Japan before." Domestically, while metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai continue to attract visitors, county-level tourism is rapidly gaining traction. Group data shows that the popularity of searches for smaller cities has increased by 25% year-on-year, with growth rates 11 percentage points higher than in China's biggest cities. Searches for small and remote places such as Bortala, an autonomous prefecture in Xinjiang populated with ethnic minority Mongol people, and Puer, a famous tea-producing area in Yunnan, have surged by more than 50%, it said. ($1 = 7.2747 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
In China, whispers of change as some companies tell staff to work less
By Farah Master and Sophie Yu HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - A handful of major Chinese companies like home appliance maker Midea have new badges of honour this year: mandatory clock-off times for staff and bans on after-hours meetings. Staff at Midea once toiled till late in the evening, but now they're told to leave by 6:20 p.m. The company's page on social media app WeChat even shows a photo of people listening to a band with a caption that reads: "What do you do after work? It's after work when life really starts." In China, this counts as radical corporate messaging, a sharp contrast to "996" or the practice of working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week - famously called a "huge blessing" by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma and an integral part of its tech sector for much of the past 15 years. Other companies have also made changes, even if not quite as dramatic. At fellow appliance maker Haier, employees have celebrated on social media the introduction of a five-day work week. Workers at DJI, the world's largest drone manufacturer, have posted about their joy at a new policy declaring offices must be vacated by 9 p.m. "No more worrying about missing the last metro, no more worrying about waking up the wife when I get home," wrote one DJI worker who said he often used to work past midnight. Haier and DJI did not respond to requests for comment. In another sign of how the zeitgeist for China Inc is slowly changing, a Beijing law firm was fined in March for not taking corrective measures after it illegally extended staff working hours - a rare imposition of a penalty by authorities that drew widespread praise on social media. But whether these nascent corporate efforts will turn into winds of change remains to be seen. Analysts say the mandatory clock-offs seem to have been prompted by changes to European Union labour laws rather than a welling up of social pressure within China. And while "996" was deemed illegal by China's top court in 2021, many people in tech and finance still work extraordinary long hours. Recent years have even seen the emergence of a new term "007", referring to being either at work or on call all day every day. Significantly, however, China's government is calling for companies to abide by the country's 44 hour weekly work limit. A State Council action plan to boost consumer spending unveiled in March said workers' rights to rest and vacation should be guaranteed and paid leave should be encouraged. State media have also run articles making those points. That fits with Chinese policymakers' desire to see the world's second-largest economy driven more by consumption and less reliant on exports - a goal that has only taken on more urgency with the imposition of additional hefty U.S. tariffs under President Donald Trump. Shujin Chen, China economist at Jefferies, says that while the government is earnest about promoting change, it won't be easy given how the country's sputtering economic growth and lack of jobs have fed financial insecurity. "They want people to like relax more, have more holidays and consume more," she said. "If you don't have enough income, and if you hardly keep your job, it's very hard for people to do that." A LONG WEEK China has a long average working week - at 46.1 hours in 2024, according to the International Labour Organisation. That compares with 38.6 hours in South Korea, 38 hours in the United States and 36.6 hours in Japan. Chinese government data puts the number even higher at 49.1 hours in January, up from 46.2 in April 2022, the earliest date for which data is publicly available. The sharp increase can be explained by rising job insecurity, spurring people's willingness to do more overtime. Before this year, there had been some, albeit rare, pushback within China against excessive working hours. Tech workers launched online protests against "996" in 2019 and 2021. And last year, a PR executive at search engine giant Baidu was made to apologise after demanding employees have their phones on 24 hours a day and be always ready to respond. One tech behemoth, social media and gaming firm Tencent, has also cut way back on overtime in at least some of its units, meaning many workers no longer stay back, two employees said. Tencent did not reply to a request for comment. This year's shift to mandatory clock-off times by some companies stems from the EU's adoption of new rules in December, said Liu Xingliang, a Beijing-based independent industry analyst. The rules ban the sale of products made with forced labour, a definition that encompasses excessive overtime. "These big companies fear losing overseas orders due to violations," said Liu, noting that while manufacturers of goods were feeling pressure from this law, China's internet and software firms are less likely to be impacted. Midea formalised its new rules which ban "performative overtime" in January and employee feedback has "definitely been very positive," Zhao Lei, vice president of the company's home air conditioning division, said in a statement. "We want to focus on generating innovation and creating value within the eight-hour work day, rather than after," he said. Not all employees are completely convinced, however. "I am not sure the changes are sustainable," said one employee who declined to be identified for fear of repercussions. The employee said he was typically on call 24 hours a day and has previously been pulled into meetings even when on vacation. ($1 = 7.2632 Chinese yuan) Sign in to access your portfolio
