Alibaba runs into Europe’s great wall of culture and competition

Alibaba wants to leverage its base in China – where three out of five citizens use its service – to make a new push into Europe’s e-commerce, cloud computing and e-payment markets. — Bloomberg

Live streaming by Chinese influencers like Wei Ya and "lipstick king” Li Jiaqi, peddling everything from skincare products to toilet paper, lured millions to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s biggest binge-shopping day last month, posting a record US$75bil (RM305.18bil) in sales. In Europe, the event barely made a ripple.

While Alibaba’s Tmall platform in China logged 583,000 orders in one second at its peak on the Hangzhou-based company’s Nov 11 Singles Day, infomercials in France on its platform during the event rarely got more than 1,000 views.