E-commerce War Heats up

With Chinas biggest online shopping day， the Double Eleven Day， or Singles Day， approaching， the competition is heating up among big players in the business-toconsumer （B2C） market.

Chinas top two ecommerce companies， JD.com Inc and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd， are involved in a fresh war of word recently. JD.com， the countrys second-largest e-commerce site by sales， filed a complaint to industry authority claiming that its larger rival Alibaba was“disrupting the market order”.

In a complaint filed on Nov. 3 to the State Administration of Industry and Commerce （SAIC）， the Beijingbased company said Alibaba told retailers to pick a side during the upcoming Singles Day， Chinas largest online shopping festival. The SAIC issued rules stating that online platforms could not bar merchants from also selling on rival sites in September.

JD.com Files against Alibaba

In a statement， JD.com said that Alibaba conveyed a message to retailers that if they participated in its Tmalls promotion campaign on the Singles Day， they will not be allowed to attend similar events held by rival sites.

JD.com claimed that Alibaba threatened to direct less traffic to retailers who were unwilling to follow its demands. It said：”such behavior poses barriers to market competition and severely undermines consumers interests.”

In response， Alibaba said that let consumers decide which platforms they are willing to choose. The mega ecommerce giant said： “Market-related problems should resort to the market for solution. We will continue offering consumers quality products at lower prices.”

The dispute comes as the countrys e-commerce sites intensify efforts to vie for retail partners for the upcoming Singles Day， when millions of consumers flood to websites for bargain shopping.

With Chinas economy cooling and online sales growth slowing， both JD.com and Alibaba have a lot riding on shopping totals for Singles Day.

In China， the worlds largest online retail market， Alibabas eBay-like platforms account for 65-70% of total ecommerce of 450 billion US dollars. During the last years Singles Day， Alibaba racked up a record-breaking 9-billion-US-dollar in sales， a great increase compared with the previous years 5.9-billion-US-dollar record， while JD.com said its sales totaled 14 million US dollars， without giving a monetary figure.

JD.com and Alibaba have also made a tradition of loud public name-calling in the run-up to the day — an annual festival of consumption that routinely surpasses shopping records elsewhere in the world including Cyber Monday in the US.

On Nov. 5， ， amid the spate of insults and lawsuits， the SAIC agreed to hear a case brought by JD.com claiming that Alibaba was bullying merchants into ditching its rivals platform.

“This year they are threatening all merchants not to participate in JDs Singles Day，” wrote Richard Liu， JD.com chairman， on his social media feed， along with a picture of himself flanked by two men in suits of armor. “When our enemies get scared， we laugh”.

JD.com accused Alibaba of“breaching fair competition” that will deprive consumers of their rights and“have a negative effect on the national economy”.

Alibaba retorted that “the chicken has reported the duck for monopolizing the lake” — implying， loosely， that Singles Day belongs to Alibaba and JD.com is an interloper.

Zhang Yi， chief of Imedia， an internet research consultancy， said the skirmish is part of an “annual publicity exercise” by the duo. “The more carried away they get with their name-calling， the more heads are turned. They dont really mean to do each other any harm.”

While the Zhejiang provincial branch of the SAIC has agreed to hear JD.coms complaint， “What could happen？” he said. “Alibaba is the largest taxpayer in the province， and the most they would do is just hold a symposium”.

For millions of online shoppers， Alibaba is the online mega retailer that brings them everything from electronics to cosmetics， and in some cities， fresh groceries. JD.com， whose strength has historically been in electronics， wants to challenge Alibabas supremacy in the lucrative world of e-commerce. So， competition between the two e-commerce giant is becoming fiercer.

Fierce Competition

In 2014， there also erupted a war of words between the two online retailers， as they sparred over the rights to Singles Day. At that time， JD.com said Alibabas attempt to patent the numerologically auspicious double 11 motif was “like trying to patent Thanksgiving”.

Though the November 11 SinglesDay was created by college students in 1993， Alibaba launched it as a shopping event in 2009 as an “anti-Valentines Day” where single people buy something for themselves.

Mr Zhang said that behind the stepped-up hype is a sense that consumers are getting wise to Singles Day， where many merchants raise prices ahead of time to be able to advertise huge “discounts” on the day itself.

“People are getting tired of the Singles Day concept，” he said. “Its like mid-autumn lunar festival.”

Singles Day promotions are “all about getting rid of inventories， and fake price-slashing”， said Wang Hai， a Beijing-based consumer advocate.

Alibabas sales on Tmall and Taobao totaled 5.8 billion US dollars in 2013 and 9.3 billion US dollars in 2014. JD.com， around a fifth of the size of Alibaba by market capitalization， reported only the number of orders it received； using Alibabas per-order value of 33.50 US dollars， JD. coms 14 million orders would have brought in around 500 million US dollars. In other words， even accounting for its smaller size， JD.com is punching below its weight compared to Alibaba.

Yet the pugnacious JD.com is doing more than tattling on Alibaba to regulators. It has partnered with Tencent Holdings Limited， the Hong Kong-listed owner of the internationally popular WeChat （Wiexin） messaging service. The exact nature of the “innovative mobile marketing solutions” this partnership will foster is unclear， though it appears that JD and Tencent will share customer data in order to offer better targeted advertising.

Most of the media focus leading up to Singles Day has been on e-commerce platforms， and for good reason. Whether true in the specifics or not， Alibabas alleged infringements are indicative of a broader pattern： merchants complain that they are pressured to offer discounts， making them the real victims of the e-commerce giants maneuvering. Investors betting on Chinese singlescommercial enthusiasm may find that the platforms offer better returns than the vendors.

Singles Day represents a huge windfall for e-commerce platforms in China， with Alibaba leading the pack. JD is tired of being the wallflower， however， and is going after Alibaba from multiple angles. Whether it will chip away at Alibabas share of the pie remains to be seen， but the pie is growing fast enough—for now—that neither company need worry too much.