1 Talking Point 6 Week in 60 Seconds 7 M&A 8 Shipping Week in China 9 Telecoms 10 Economy 11 China and the World 12 Media 13 China Consumer 18 September 2015 15 Internet and Tech 16 Society and Culture Issue 296 19 And Finally www.weekinchina.com 20 The Back Page The rivals m o c . n i e t s p e a t i n e b . w w w Clicks and mortar: how Alibaba’s Ma and Wanda’s Wang are going head-to-head Brought to you by Week in China Talking Point 18 September 2015 Frenemy at the gates The biggest corporate rivals in China are increasingly Alibaba and Wanda The battle between Jack Ma and Wang Jianlin has more at stake than a Rmb100 million bet ichard Neville is known to Eng- dominant chunk of the country’s him the same amount. Rlish historians as the King- consumer spending. maker. That’s because in the middle Will it be down to Zhang ‘the Who is likely to win the wager? part of the fifteenth century he not Kingmaker’ to decide whether Jack Three years on and it’s clear to Wang only became the second richest Ma or Wang Jianlin (both have been that the rapid increases in online man in England, he also held the ranked as China’s richest man in spending are hurting sales at phys- fate of the crown in his hands. wealth surveys) prevails as the ty- ical stores. China Business Herald A key player in the Wars of the coons battle for dominance? reports that in the first half of this Roses, Neville earned his nickname year the country’s major retailers when he helped topple the Lancas- Two titans make a big public bet... shut 121 large outlets (such as su- trian king Henry VI, and replace In December 2012 Ma and Wang ap- permarkets) and 25 department him with Edward IV. When he sub- peared together on CCTV’s live show stores. Indeed Wanda has closed 10 sequently fell out with the Yorkist Economic Figures of the Year. Ma of its own underperforming de- monarch, his kingmaking tendency was in provocative mood, telling partments stores, with resurfaced once more as he restored China’s biggest commercial prop- Winshang.com predicting another Henry to the throne. In a measure erty developer that shops and malls 45 could also be shut. of his power, he held both Henry were a thing of the past. Last month Wanda announced and Edward captive in his imposing “The bad news is that e-com- it was closing the nation’s largest fortress Warwick Castle. merce will essentially replace bricks- karaoke chain, Superstar, too. Fast forward to present day and-mortar,” Ma jokily told Wang. “China’s consumer behaviour is China and a Kingmaker looks to The hard-charging Sichuanese was undergoing significant changes, have emerged in the shape of Zhang unimpressed by Ma’s forecast and inevitably hurting some large- Jindong. He’s the founder and boss made a bet that if online consump- scale retailers,” Qu Dejun, presi- of Suning, an electronics retailer tion had surpassed 50% of China’s dent of Wanda Commercial, said in P h o t o with a vast footprint across China. total retail volume by 2022, he’d give a statement. S o u r In the past few weeks he has done Ma Rmb100 million ($15.7 million). Over the past decade Wanda’s de- c e : R e deals with both Alibaba and Wanda, However, if e-commerce fell short of partment stores were important an- u t e r s two rivals that are seeking to grab a that ratio he expected Ma to pay chor tenants for its Wanda Plaza 1 Week in China Talking Point 18 September 2015 shopping malls. They helped to en- phone screens, between firms like courage footfall (in 2012 around 1.1 Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, Xiaomi, billion shoppers entered Wanda’s JD.com, Suning and Wanda.) malls). The strategic rationale for Alibaba However, Wanda’s Hong Kong was Suning’s logistics and retail dis- listed unit can no longer offer the tribution network. Techcrunch Wanda department stores – held in pointed out that Suning has 1,600 a separate non-listed vehicle – a stores in 289 cities, but equally im- cross-subsidy (in the form of below- portant is the logistics operation it market rents). This, combined with has built to deliver the items or- falling sales – as consumers shop dered in those shops and online. more online – has made the giant This is said to cover 90% of China stores an increasingly poor busi- via eight national distribution cen- ness proposition. tres, 57 regional centres and over Of course, overall the pie is get- 1,700 last-mile delivery stations. ting bigger, with China’s consumer Zhang Jindong: the Kingmaker This can be combined with Al- spending continuing to rise. Data ibaba’s own (less developed) logis- just released for July shows that re- to have come to the realisation that tics unit Cainiao, with Walter Woo, tail sales grew year-on-year by the winning approach won’t be an analyst with Oriental Patron 10.5%. But the more striking num- purely bricks-and-mortar nor telling Reuters, “Instead of building ber was that online sales soared 37% purely digital but a mixture of both. the [distribution] network itself, it in the first seven months of 2015. The new buzz-phrase is online-to- saves more time through this kind The Financial Times this week re- offline (O2O) and both men are of deal.” ported that Alibaba is responsible for looking to rapidly expand their of- Ma said of the deal: “Over the “about 70% of China’s retail e-com- fering in this area. And that is why past two decades, e-commerce has merce – and accounts for around 8% both have recently courted Zhang become an inextricable part of the of total retail sales in the country”. Jindong and inked high-profile lives of Chinese consumers, and this When the two tycoons made their deals with his firm Suning Com- new alliance brings forth a new bet e-commerce only comprised 3% merce. commerce model that fully inte- of total retail spending. grates online and offline.” Then again, it’s not all been going What were the deals? It marks the end of Alibaba’s well for Ma either. Alibaba’s New Alibaba swooped first. Last month asset-light strategy, but Ma thinks York-listed stock has plunged 50% it surprised many analysts when it the O2O opportunity merits the below its IPO price and this week purchased a 19.99% stake in Suning change of direction. Access to Sun- traded at a new low. To make mat- for $4.6 billion. In return Suning ing’s physical stores will enable ters worse the US business maga- also bought 1.1% of Alibaba for $2.28 greater after-sales support, and zine Barron’s published an billion. allow customers to pick up pur- unexpectedly negative article on Al- Prior to the transaction Alibaba chases. The New York Times reports ibaba, stating that the stock could had just announced that its revenue there is even talk of Alibaba chan- fall another 50% because it was re- for the three months ending in June nelling online grocery sales through porting numbers that “strain rose 28% to $3.27 billion, its slowest Suning’s distribution network; as credulity”. growth rate in more than three well as Alipay becoming the Alibaba released a detailed rebut- years. favoured option for making pur- tal saying the Barron’s article con- Local media in China com- chases within Suning stores. tained factual inaccuracies, selective mented that the Alibaba-Suning tie- This deal was perhaps less about information and “misleading con- up looked like the sort of tactical Wanda from Ma’s perspective than clusions”. Still, for a company to be alliance seen during the country’s about e-commerce rival JD.com. forced onto the defensive about its Warring States period. (Comparison Like Amazon the latter has invested financials is never positive. is often drawn between this era of in a sophisticated in-house ware- P h o t o Meanwhile there are also signs seven battling kingdoms – eventu- housing and delivery system. Its ef- S o u r that both Ma and Wang have altered ally won by the state of Qin in 221 BC ficiency and customer satisfaction c e : R e their thinking since they shook – and the modern day business levels have even started to eat into u t e r s hands on their mega-bet. Both seem struggles being fought on smart- Alibaba’s market share in e-com- 3 Week in China Talking Point 18 September 2015 merce. To some extent, the invest- ment in Suning was a defensive Planet China strategy to nullify JD.com’s per- Strange but true stories from the new China ceived speed advantage in deliver- ing online purchases. But Wanda was soon back on A professor at Harbin Medical University has told China Ma’s radar, as just weeks after his Daily that he will soon be in a position to “transplant a human head” via surgery. Ren Xiaoping told the newspaper that it will be “at least two years” own deal, Wanda became a strategic before he is able to undertake the first human head transplant in history. He partner of Suning too. said he will partner with Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero on what is “one of “It’s a win-win for both sides,” the most cutting edge technologies in the medical field”.