Tag: e-commerce

Tencent is setting its hopes on mobile commerce

| May 19, 2014

Tencent is growing bolder when it comes to the mobile space

Tencent, one of China’s largest online retail and technology organizations, has seen profits from the mobile sector soar over the past several months. The company has long held a strong place in the mobile space, but has only recently begun to heavily involve itself therein through social media, gaming, and commerce. As the company continues to grow, it is beginning to become more cavalier with its mobile interests, launching new initiatives and services that are meant to enthrall mobile consumers throughout China.

Company continues to fight competition and attract support from consumers

Tencent is currently valued at over $120 billion, making it one of the largest and most influential business entities in the country and a competitor of the Alibaba Group, which is another massive organization based in China. The majority of Tencent’s success has been made in the gaming field, where its mobile games and publishing services have managed to win the favor of consumers and game developers alike. Gaming is not enough for Tencent, however, and the company has begun to focus more heavily on mobile and e-commerce.

E-commerce proves to be a tough battleground for Tencent

Mobile Commerce - TencentIn terms of mobile commerce, Tencent has recently made updates to its massively popular WeChat application. These updates have introduced new features to the application that allow it to serve as a mobile shopping platform. The application can also be used to make payments for particular goods and services. The company has found success in the mobile field, but has not been able to mimic this success when it comes to e-commerce. Tencent has struggled for some time to establish a strong foothold in the e-commerce realm due to various challenges and strong competition coming from Alibaba.

WeChat may become the defacto mobile commerce platform for many people

Tencent is unwilling to abandon e-commerce, but the company may be focusing more heavily on the mobile space for the foreseeable future. The WeChat application is already the most widely used mobile app in the world, which also makes it one of the most widely used mobile commerce platforms. To date, no singular mobile commerce service has managed to attract the support of any significant majority demographic, but WeChat may be able to accomplish this goal.

Mobile commerce spending has slowed during the first quarter of 2014

| May 15, 2014

comScore report highlights the state of the mobile market and spending among consumers

Leading market research and analytics firm comScore has released its latest report concerning the performance of mobile commerce in the U.S. The report highlights the first quarter of 2014, showing that mobile shopping and spending has increased by a significant margin over what was recorded during the same period of the previous year. More consumers are beginning to rely on their mobile devices in their daily lives. As this trend becomes more prominent, commerce is becoming more digital.

Desktop e-commerce grew by 12% during the first quarter of this year

According to comScore’s report, desktop e-commerce rose by 12% year-over-year during the first quarter of this year. This represents the fourteenth consecutive quarter where double-digit growth has been recorded in this sector. Consumers appear to still favor the shopping experience they have using desktop computers and these platforms are likely to remain quite popular with consumers shopping online for the foreseeable future.

Mobile spending has slowed by a modest degree due to the passing holiday season

Mobile commerce spending reportThe report shows that mobile commerce spending has slowed down somewhat from what it had been during the fourth quarter of 2013. Typically, spending is usually highest among consumers during the holiday season, with spending slowing down significantly afterward. Notably, however, spending has only slowed by a modest amount, which means that consumers are still using their mobile devices to shop online relatively frequently. This is being considered a good sign, especially in light of the softening mobile market and the general wariness that consumers have about mobile payments.

Mobile activity likely to pick up at the end of the year

The most popular product categories among mobile shoppers during the first quarter of this year were apparel and accessories, consumer packaged goods, sports and fitness goods, and subscription-based digital content. Consumers are expected to continue participating in mobile commerce somewhat regularly as the year goes on. Mobile spending is expected to again accelerate as the holiday season approaches, especially now than retailers are planning to engage mobile consumers more aggressively than they have in the past.