From Fortune:

China’s tech royalty is shaking up in the e-commerce world. Upstarts like PDD Holdings and returning giants like Baidu are challenging Alibaba and Tencent, while even ByteDance, creator of Douyin and TikTok, is feeling pressure.

ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo has expressed concern that the company is falling behind, complaining of inefficiencies and a lack of speed. He warned that ByteDance faces becoming a “mediocre organization” if it doesn’t improve its response to external changes.

China’s tech sector is seeing a race to adopt generative AI, with Baidu claiming that its ERNIE chatbot is as good as OpenAI’s GPT-4 model. Alibaba, Tencent, JD, and a array of Chinese startups are also launching their own AI services.

ByteDance launched its own chatbot, Doubao, last year. However, reports have stated that ByteDance was using OpenAI’s technology to train its chatbot, a violation of OpenAI’s terms of service, resulting in ByteDance’s account being suspended by OpenAI.

Tencent CEO Pony Ma expressed disappointment in the company’s video game business but aims to grow its ubiquitous messaging app WeChat. Ma wants to see more growth from WeChat’s social media offerings while being hesitant about expanding WeChat’s digital payment processing due to regulatory fines.

China’s e-commerce giants, JD.com and Alibaba, aren’t immune to the criticism. JD.com’s chairman warned employees not to “lie flat” to address “big troubles” while Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma called for “change and reform” praising newcomer PDD Holdings.

PDD Holdings, owner of Pinduoduo and Temu, is gaining favor among investors despite generating less revenue than Alibaba and JD.com. PDD reported 94% year-on-year revenue growth, which has driven its share value up by more than 20% in contrast with drops for Alibaba and JD.com.



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