In “Headlines from China,” we share the biggest news stories about the luxury industry in China that have yet to make it into the English language. In this week’s edition, we discuss:
- Procter & Gamble's Global Supply Chain Affected by Halted Factory Work in China
- Taobao’s Monthly Active Users Reached 800 Million While Livestreaming Viewers Doubled in Q3
- Most of China Returns To Work As Wuhan’s Home Province Announces Delay Until March
Procter & Gamble's Global Supply Chain Affected by Halted Factory Work in China#
Procter & Gamble, which owns beauty brands SK-II and Olay, said this Thursday that sales in China took a hit due to Covid-19. Although the company is still running its Chinese e-commerce operation, restricted logistics capability and limited manpower are causing friction. In addition, the group’s Chinese suppliers haven’t all returned to work, which affected their production. “We access 387 suppliers in China that ship to us globally more than 9,000 different materials, impacting approximately 17,600 different finished product items,” Jon Moeller, the group’s CFO and COO, said at an industry conference.
Taobao’s Monthly Active Users Reached 800 Million While Livestreaming Viewers Doubled in Q3#
— Caijing
Alibaba’s recent quarterly financial results may have shown how e-commerce could bounce back after the Covid-19 crisis quiets down. For the quarter ending on December 31, its e-commerce site Taobao’s Monthly Active Users (MAU) reached 800 million for the first time, while the number of MAU on Taobao’s livestreaming platform, Taobao Live doubled compared to a year ago.
The power of Taobao Live is not to be underestimated, whether before or after the coronavirus outbreak. Previous statistics show that in 2019 Singles' Day, Taobao Live drove almost 20 billion yuan ($2.85 billion) of sales. And as the nation began facing the battle toward Covid-19, Taobao swiftly announced that any brick-and-mortar vendor could start a livestreaming channel for free, as part of an initiative to help small to medium business owners get back on their feet.
Most of China Returns To Work As Wuhan’s Home Province Announces Delay Until March#
It’s been a very long Lunar New Year holiday for China, especially for factory workers who can’t work remotely and need to wait on local government regulations. Shanghai Securities News found that provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong — home to a vast number of textile and clothing factories — have the highest return-to-work rate at 60 to 70 percent as of this Tuesday compared to other provinces at 40 percent. Meanwhile, Hubei, the home province of the Covid-19’s epicenter, Wuhan, has issued another delay on the return-to-work date, which is now set for March 10.