China Herald: Manipulating figures, part of the Single's Day game

Shaun Rein

The top-2 e-commerce players Alibaba and JD.com accused each other of manipulating the turnover they recorded at China's Single's Day. Business analyst Shaun Rein would not believe either of them, he tells the Sixth Tone.

Sixth Tone:

Behind the quarrel is an all-out war to conquer the world’s largest and fastest-growing e-commerce market, industry analysts say. According to iResearch, a Chinese internet consulting firm, Tmall accounted for 56.6 percent of all business-to-consumer e-commerce sales in 2016, while JD.com came in second with 24.7 percent of all sales.

“Both companies are manipulating the numbers to make themselves look good — for reporters and brands, and to get consumers excited,” said Shaun Rein, author of the upcoming book “The War for China’s Wallet” and founder of China Market Research Group, a strategic market intelligence firm in Shanghai. Winning the annual shopping festival “is really like a trophy,” he told Sixth Tone.

More at the Sixth Tone.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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