Welcome to the Jing Daily WeChat Edition

Dear WeChaters, 
This week, we report on yet another record smashing Singles’ Day. Plus, we check out Tencent’s new video-calling dating platform, Maohu, and update travelers that they now will be able to link their international cards to Alibaba and WeChat payment apps. From there, our video of the week features Kim Kardashian pushing her namesake perfume on Tmall Global. Enjoy! 

—What's New—

The latest WeChat news gathered from top sources

 SOLD OUT 
The tally is in for Alibaba’s Singles’ Day — U.S. $38.4 billion (RMB 268.4 billion) of gross merchandise volume (GMV), reports Alibaba. The sales marks an increase of 26% compared to 2018. This year’s Singles’ Day featured 200,000 participating brands, one million new product launches and 1.3 billion delivery orders. The top five international countries selling to China through cross-border platforms were: Japan, United States, South Korea, Australia, and Germany.
Read More 

 DATE NIGHT 
Chinese social giant Tencent has released a new video-calling app dating platform dubbed, “Maohu,” in a bid to catch up with the short-video trend and expand its presence in the social networking sector, as its messaging platforms WeChat and QQ both hit bottleneck in capturing new users.
Read More 

 wechat card 
Alibaba and WeChat said yesterday travelers will now be able to link their international cards to their payment apps. To use Alipay in China, you’ll have to download the app and indicate you want to install the international version while signing up. The payment service will support Visa, MasterCard, Japan’s JCB, and Singapore’s Diners Club cards. In a separate statement, WeChat’s owner, Tencent, said it will also support American Express cards in addition to the aforementioned cards.
Read More 

—The Campaign—

Recent noteworthy campaigns & case studies on WeChat Wiki

ALIBABA GOES DOUBLE 11  
Facts:
Alibaba, the Chinese multinational conglomerate, hosted its 11^th Singles’ Day shopping festival this past Monday. 
Highlights: 
— Singles’ Day hosted a number of global celebrities, including everyone’s favorite Taylor Swift and the Asian pop icon, GEM, to create desire for the festival.
—Apple, L’Oréal, and Dyson took in 100 million yuan or $14 million in pre-orders.
— In a live-streamed video last week, Kim Kardashian announced that her fragrance brand KKW will be sold on Tmall this Singles’ Day.
— Not to be forgotten, both JD.com and Pinduoduo also host similar campaigns this year. JD.com’s sales, which began November 1, had grown to $23.6 billion as of early today. 
Results: 
This year’s Singles’ Day generated U.S. $38.4 billion (RMB 268.4 billion) of gross merchandise volume (GMV), reported Alibaba, marking an increase of 26% compared to 2018.
Our Take: 
Shipping an estimated one billion packages in one day creates a huge amount of waste (and profit). Although Alibaba is working on some initiatives to deal with this potentiallyenvironmentallyharmful situation, it would be great if they could come up with a plan to move so many, many packages so quickly without the environmental harm.  
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 taobao GOES BRICK & MORTAR 
Facts:
Alibaba Group is opening a Taobao store at MyTOWN Shopping Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in partnership with MyTOWN and retailer Lumahgo New Retail. The new outlet will be named Taobao Store by Lumahgo and comes shortly after Taobao launched its first concept store in Southeast Asia at Singapore’s Funan mall.
Key Takeaway: 
—The opening of the latest Taobao store demonstrates their commitment to local shoppers and brands, as they further localized services and experiences for the Malaysian market. 
—  Having a physical space means shoppers will be able to touch and feel a variety of products in person before making a purchase on the Taobao app simply by scanning a QR code, with the help of the staff at the store.
Check out how the Singapore store looks like.
Read more

—Deep Dive—

Must-read, in-depth guides, tutorials & reports

 WECHAT 4 SOLUTIONS 
WeChat Work has lately brought retailers 4 heavyweight solutions for the first time at the WeChat Open Class retail special event held in Shanghai. 
Highlights: 
— Smart Membership Service: upgrade the interoperability with WeChat to provide customers with accurate and effective services.
— Smart Store Management: unified address book + store digital toolkit to realize intelligent and mobile management of stores.
— Smart Industry Connection: open up data barriers and share applications to make information run efficiently on the entire business chain.
—  Smart Office Collaboration: A workbench encompasses all applications and reduces internal office costs.
Read more

—Video of the Week—

 kim kardashian live-stream 
As live-streaming shopping videos have become increasingly popular in China, they’ve also become critically important to brands’ strategies for the biggest shopping holiday in the country, Alibaba’s Singles’ Day. For example, Kim Kardashian used an Alibaba broadcast to mark the arrival of her namesake perfume to Tmall Global.
Click here to watch the video.