Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2023-03-12 Origin: Site
Introduction
'A small celebration every five years, a big celebration every ten years'
Chinese people always like to use the word '正' to record time, using long horizontal strokes to start and long horizontal strokes to close.
In 2012, Amazon launched the 'global store' business in China, opening overseas sites to Chinese sellers.
The Amazon seller group thus stood on the cross-border e-commerce stage, took a boat out to sea, and gradually reached the C position.
In 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered speeches in Kazakhstan and Indonesia respectively, proposing the initiative to jointly build the 'Silk Road Economic Belt' and the '21st Century Maritime Silk Road', and the 'Belt and Road' set sail.
In a blink of an eye, it has been ten years.
Standing at the intersection of the turn of the decade, how will cross-border e-commerce and the 'One Belt, One Road' work together to write a new 'right'?
Their respective streams eventually meet together
Ten years ago, when Amazon offered an olive branch to Chinese sellers, cross-border e-commerce and the 'Belt and Road Initiative' did not seem to have a very substantial connection, just like two rivers without intersection, rushing into the sea separately.
However, as Huang Renwei, executive vice president of the 'Belt and Road' Institute of Global Governance at Fudan University, said, 'One Belt and One Road' started from the initial large-scale projects such as road construction and bridge construction, and gradually extended to industrial chains, resource development, Environmental protection and other social public areas, 'Green Silk Road', 'Digital Silk Road', 'Healthy Silk Road' and other construction will soon realize the all-round development of 'One Belt and One Road'.
The outbreak of the epidemic in 2020 has accelerated the coexistence of the 'Belt and Road' and cross-border e-commerce.At that time, hundreds of thousands of Chinese foreign trade companies were unable to go abroad to explore markets due to the epidemic, and more than 300,000 foreign buyers were unable to purchase in China. Cross-border e-commerce became the 'China-Myanmar Highway' connecting Chinese goods and overseas consumption.
A group of seemingly unrelated people: Fujian Huiyuan International Exhibition Co., Ltd., a leading outreach service provider from the exhibition industry, Fujian Miduoduo Network Technology Co., Ltd., a leading digital marketing service provider from the cross-border e-commerce industry, and Fujian Miduoduo Network Technology Co., Ltd. from the foreign trade industry. The Fujian Provincial Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export, the corporate base, came together at this time. They were all keenly aware of the business opportunities outside the 'epidemic', and joined hands across borders to prepare for the first China Cross-border E-commerce Fair in Fuzhou.
At that time, Fuzhou ranked fifteenth in the national cross-border e-commerce industry rankings, but the 'Fuzhou State' drank the soup without hesitation this time.China Cross-border E-commerce Fair has also become the only professional exhibition in the cross-border e-commerce industry named after China without city brackets.
As the first professional cross-border e-commerce exhibition in China, the most optimistic estimate made by the organizing committee before the meeting is that it will attract 25,000 national purchasers.As a result, the enthusiasm of all parties to embrace cross-border e-commerce mining greatly exceeded the expectations of the organizing committee.
In the venue, in order to accommodate the factories that had to come, the organizing committee was busy installing temporary booths in various corridors.Outside the venue, there was a long queue of sellers and traders waiting to enter.According to statistics after the meeting, the three-day China International Trade Fair attracted more than 62,000 buyers and achieved an intended transaction volume of more than 3.5 billion US dollars.
It was also at the China Cross-Border E-commerce Fair that the E-commerce Department of the Ministry of Commerce established the Belt and Road Cross-border E-commerce Forum event '2021 Silk Road E-commerce International Cooperation Forum', which was the only guidance and support at that time, into an exhibition. main forum.
Officials from the embassies of 13 countries along the 'Belt and Road' in China and representatives from all parties in the cross-border e-commerce industry began to discuss Silk Road e-commerce.
Two rivers destined to converge into a river officially join forces.
The left hand is 'Silk Road', the right hand is 'e-commerce'
After ten years of preparation and accumulation, cross-border e-commerce and the 'One Belt, One Road' are now on a positive cycle path that resonates hand in hand.
Over the past ten years, my country has signed more than 200 cooperation documents on the joint construction of the 'Belt and Road' with 151 countries and 32 international organizations, forming more than 3,000 cooperation projects with an investment scale of nearly US$1 trillion.
Such a huge investment has established a basic pattern of 'six corridors, six roads, multiple countries and multiple ports' for the interconnection between my country and the countries along the 'Belt and Road'.At the same time, as of the end of 2020, my country has established 'Silk Road E-commerce' bilateral cooperation mechanisms with 22 countries.
Cross-border e-commerce is essentially e-commerce, but the difficulty lies in cross-border e-commerce.The improvement of transportation and logistics infrastructure and the establishment of a convenient mechanism for cargo clearance in the region have opened up the two channels of cross-border e-commerce.
Southeast Asia's cross-border e-commerce market has exploded in recent years, and the 'One Belt, One Road' initiative has played a major role.For example, the China-Laos railway was officially opened to traffic at the end of 2021. Only 9 months after it was opened, the total value of international freight exceeded 10 billion yuan.
In 2022, among the goods transported by rail between my country and ASEAN, the proportion of goods transported via the China-Laos railway will jump to 44.7%, contributing more than 60% to the growth of imports and exports by rail transportation between China and ASEAN.
In addition to transportation, Chinese capital’s continued large-scale investment in Southeast Asia’s e-commerce industry is also the core driving force behind the rapid growth of cross-border e-commerce in Southeast Asia.
In 2015, Li Xiaodong, who was born in Tianjin, founded Shopee.A year later, Lazada, founded in 2012, received substantial investment from Alibaba.According to an investment banker, before 2018, Chinese equity investment funds’ investments in Southeast Asia were mainly concentrated in the e-commerce field.
On April 25, 2022, TikTok announced the launch of the tiktok shop cross-border e-commerce business in four Southeast Asian countries (Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines), adding fuel to the booming Southeast Asian e-commerce.In less than a year, TikTok Shop has achieved a transaction volume of US$4.4 billion in the Southeast Asian market.
The development of cross-border e-commerce has fed back into the 'One Belt, One Road' initiative.Taking Southeast Asia as an example, the growth of the local e-commerce market has attracted a second wave of Chinese companies 'going to Southeast Asia'.A large number of professional MCN institutions, overseas brands, logistics companies, and factories have come to Southeast Asia to invest and establish businesses, further strengthening the 'China-ASEAN community of shared future.'
A new global value chain pattern is taking shape
At the same time, if you zoom out, you will find that under the guidance of the 'Belt and Road', China and the countries along the 'Belt and Road' are forming a new international division of labor and cooperation pattern.
Before 2013, the international division of labor showed a 'ternary structure'. Developed countries represented by Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea were in the first echelon. Protected by barriers such as high technology, patents, brands, and finance, they monopolized global value. In the highlands of the chain, companies have huge profits and consumers have strong purchasing power, mainly playing the role of consumer countries.
Countries such as China, Vietnam, and Mexico are in the second echelon and assume the role of the world's factories, responsible for organizing production and exporting goods.Many countries have neither high-tech advantages nor manufacturing foundations and can only rely on export resources to develop their economies.
However, with the upgrading of China's own industries and the integration and development with the 'Belt and Road' countries and regions, this traditional three-dimensional structure is being deconstructed.China is driving more and more resource countries along the 'Belt and Road' to become industrial countries, and China itself is also developing into a composite role of a manufacturing country + a consumer country, and is constantly opening its own market to the outside world.
This change is directly reflected in changes in China's largest trading partner.In 2020, ASEAN surpassed the EU for the first time and became my country's largest trading partner.The big driving force behind this is that ASEAN has been increasing its import of intermediate products from my country in recent years.
According to customs statistics, in 2022, my country's exports of intermediate products to countries along the route were 4.44 trillion yuan, an increase of 23.9%, accounting for 56.3% of my country's total export value to countries along the route during the same period.Among them, exports of textiles, electronic components, basic organic chemicals and auto parts increased by 14.5%, 21.1%, 31.3% and 24.6% respectively.
At the same time, the 'One Belt and One Road' countries, especially ASEAN countries, have shifted from exporting raw materials to a structure that mainly exports raw materials and assembled industrial finished products.Of course, with the upgrading of industry, the consumption power of local people is also increasing, and the requirement for imported goods has also changed from giving priority to low price to giving priority to cost-effectiveness.
In other words, the original pyramid-shaped global division of labor, collaboration and consumption pattern with clear top and bottom is being leveled.Therefore, in cross-border e-commerce, sellers feel the relative sluggishness of the consumption power of European and American sites, and see the rapid development of the e-commerce market in Southeast Asia, Latin America and other places, but the profits are still low.
A new global value chain pattern is taking shape
At the same time, if you zoom out, you will find that under the guidance of the 'Belt and Road', China and the countries along the 'Belt and Road' are forming a new international division of labor and cooperation pattern.
Before 2013, the international division of labor showed a 'ternary structure'. Developed countries represented by Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea were in the first echelon. Protected by barriers such as high technology, patents, brands, and finance, they monopolized global value. In the highlands of the chain, companies have huge profits and consumers have strong purchasing power, mainly playing the role of consumer countries.
Countries such as China, Vietnam, and Mexico are in the second echelon and assume the role of the world's factories, responsible for organizing production and exporting goods.Many countries have neither high-tech advantages nor manufacturing foundations and can only rely on export resources to develop their economies.
However, with the upgrading of China's own industries and the integration and development with the 'Belt and Road' countries and regions, this traditional three-dimensional structure is being deconstructed.China is driving more and more resource countries along the 'Belt and Road' to become industrial countries, and China itself is also developing into a composite role of a manufacturing country + a consumer country, and is constantly opening its own market to the outside world.
This change is directly reflected in changes in China's largest trading partner.In 2020, ASEAN surpassed the EU for the first time and became my country's largest trading partner.The big driving force behind this is that ASEAN has been increasing its import of intermediate products from my country in recent years.
According to customs statistics, in 2022, my country's exports of intermediate products to countries along the route were 4.44 trillion yuan, an increase of 23.9%, accounting for 56.3% of my country's total export value to countries along the route during the same period.Among them, exports of textiles, electronic components, basic organic chemicals and auto parts increased by 14.5%, 21.1%, 31.3% and 24.6% respectively.
At the same time, the 'One Belt and One Road' countries, especially ASEAN countries, have shifted from exporting raw materials to a structure that mainly exports raw materials and assembled industrial finished products.Of course, with the upgrading of industry, the consumption power of local people is also increasing, and the requirement for imported goods has also changed from giving priority to low price to giving priority to cost-effectiveness.
In other words, the original pyramid-shaped global division of labor, collaboration and consumption pattern with clear top and bottom is being leveled.Therefore, in cross-border e-commerce, sellers feel the relative sluggishness of the consumption power of European and American sites, and see the rapid development of the e-commerce market in Southeast Asia, Latin America and other places, but the profits are still low.
A new global value chain pattern is taking shape
The deconstruction and reconstruction of the global value chain initiated by the 'One Belt, One Road' will profoundly affect cross-border e-commerce in the new decade.
The first thing to be changed may be the entire commodity supply chain.Many friends mentioned earlier that the biggest advantage of China's cross-border e-commerce is its reliance on China's supply chain with a complete range of categories and high cost performance.
We have seen that the first China Cross-Border E-commerce Fair will be held in 2021. It can be said that it is to solve the problem of export sales of China's foreign trade factories under the epidemic situation, with the meaning of 'external outreach and internal operation'.
As more and more manufacturing assembly links are extended to the 'Belt and Road' countries surrounding China due to cost and ease of export to Western consumer countries, then 'Buy China, Sell Globally' will also The corresponding change becomes 'buy global, sell global'.The Chinese people's 'Age of Discovery' has just begun, and there will be no distinction between inside and outside.
On January 11, the State Council approved the establishment of a China-Indonesia Economic and Trade Innovation and Development Demonstration Park in Fuzhou City and a China-Philippine Economic and Trade Innovation and Development Demonstration Park in Zhangzhou City.
In the approval, the State Council emphasized that the demonstration zone should give full play to its complementary advantages in economic and trade cooperation with ASEAN countries, explore an international division of labor and cooperation model with deep integration of industrial chains, supply chains, and value chains, and create a new highland for economic and trade cooperation and exchanges with ASEAN countries.
I believe that in the future, we will see more and more buyers and exhibitors from countries along the 'Belt and Road' at China's cross-border e-commerce trade fairs.Fuzhou can take advantage of its location and connections as a hometown of overseas Chinese to attract a large number of companies from Southeast Asia and other places to participate in the reconstruction of the value chain in cross-border e-commerce.
In 2022, the China Cross-Border E-commerce Fair set an industry precedent during the preparatory stage by going overseas for offline promotion and conducting global promotion through multiple online activities.This year, Huiyuan Company, as the organizer, also plans to hold an overseas branch of the cross-trade fair in the Philippines to promote deeper cooperation between enterprises in the two places.
Secondly, more and more Chinese companies will become truly international companies.Ten years ago, Chinese B2C sellers who wanted to go overseas had only one Chinese-backed platform to choose from, which was AliExpress, which was established in April 2010.
With European and American e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and eBay, borrowing a boat to go overseas has long been one of the few options for sellers.Starting in 2021, more and more e-commerce platforms with Chinese imprints will come to the forefront, providing sellers with more options for going overseas.
Whether it is the 'east wind spreading to the west' that TikTok is setting off around the world, carrying out live streaming e-commerce and interest e-commerce to the end, or AliExpress launching hosting services and jointly pricing with factories and traders, 'kings and horses sharing the world' Model, whether it is the person-to-person low-price offensive launched by Temu, or SHEIN, which has created a flexible supply chain and is busy testing the platform model, the 'Four Little Dragons of China' have made the cross-border e-commerce industry no longer necessary. Called Amazon.
Of course, the bigger change is that many Chinese entrepreneurs will go deep overseas, get close to overseas consumers, and start to redo cross-border e-commerce, instead of just going overseas through a network cable.At the same time, many service providers will also take action.This will bring the entire industry from purely cross-border to the integration and reorganization of upstream and downstream related to trade destinations.
In response to this trend, Midoduo Company has created overseas inspection projects, hoping to provide friends who are interested in joining the 'Chinese Age of Discovery' with a perspective and collaborative relationship to better integrate into the new era of globalization.
In the future, there may not be pure cross-border e-commerce.
In the future, we may not go to sea.
Because the new generation of Chinese companies may be born into global companies.
Whether it is cross-border e-commerce or 'One Belt, One Road',
It will eventually become an infrastructure in the new global value chain era.
But just like the Silk Road, one oasis followed another, connecting Chang'an and Rome, thousands of miles away, through trade.The next decade will inevitably be a relay race, requiring people along the entire value chain to work together to make the connection between supply and demand more efficient.
'Cross-border e-commerce' and 'One Belt, One Road' are all part of this relay.
Come on, cross-border mountains and seas are 'right' now, let you and I work together to build a new global value chain.
Don’t forget to come to the 3rd China Cross-Border E-commerce Fair from March 18th to 20th when you have time!
