There is more than Single’s Day in Chinese digital in November

3 innovation and digital news in 1 minute. Every Monday. Episode 272

News 1. Again “record number for 11.11.” at Alibaba

Same pattern every year: big sales festival at Single’s Day in China and record numbers. Alibaba announces $84 bn in sales for 900 million Chinese consumers and 290.000 merchants sold on its two main apps Taobao and Tmall. A long history since 2009 when the idea of Single’s Day started — with the insight of many singles in China and the symbolic 11.11. date. Today Alibaba systematically names the event “Global Shopping Festival”. Opinion: “Why should we care about Single’s Day anyway?”, a question asked very often in Europe. First, because many retailers (especially in Germany) are overtaking the event on 11.11.. And second, because it creates an event before the Black Week end of November, that itself draws sales before the pre-christmas shopping phase.

The news around 11.11. in 2021? Conformation: it works!

News 2. The ByteDance re-org — a sign for the future

ByteDance? This is the parent company of TikTok and strong Chinese local news app Toutiao. A new CEO and a new organisation that shows how ByteDance plans the future. 6 business units: 1/ TikTok and Chinese equivalent Douyin 2/ Education (a new arm with Dali Education 3/ Workplace Lark 4/ new own cloud called Volcano Engine (AI-based TikTok/Toutiao algorithm for enterprise) 5/ gaming with Nuverse 6/ BytePlus software service (effects, translation). A strong push, B2C with education and B2B with cloud and SaaS. Opinion: Many in the US and Europe don’t really know the details behind the TikTok phenomenon. ByteDance is the parent company, and they are diversifying its activities. Notably in education, for China — a clever move in a moment where Peking’s regulators tighten the frame of activities of all large Chinese tech.

A seldom look inside ByteDance — we’ll know more if ByteDance goes public!

News 3. NavInfo, the Chinese digital map, strong on HD

NavInfo is the #1 Chinese digital map providers. It has build over the years (founded in 2002) and with many sources of data, the standard digital mapping for China — for navigation, traffic, any use cases around map. Its strength: HD and very precise mapping (for autonomous driving). Just announced it will equip Daimler cars in China, an important win for NavInfo. Opinion: NavInfo positions itself as a “smart mobility” provider. Its digital navigation autonomous driving and even in chip sets for the car itself. NavInfo has a European arm in Eindhoven (NL) but mainly operates from its strength in China.

A discovery: NavInfo. Strong into the car industry ecosystem.

Author is the research team (10 trend scouters) at specialist Space and Lemon Innovations (Hamburg, Berlin) — scouting innovations in main tech geographies, AI development, virtual worlds and e-commerce. Excerpts of research are gathered here in original weekly news since 2016, always with an opinion — no re-write of TechCrunch.

Come back next Monday and share your opinion.