Hong Kong Stock Market Review: Stuck in a Growth Dilemma

With the release of the latest data, consumer stocks continue to plummet. In the first 6 months, the growth of physical goods online retail sales increased by 8.8%. If calculated uniformly, it means a growth of 6.4% in Q2, but there was a decline in June.

Although the 618 shopping festival played a role in this, there is a high probability that the e-commerce industry is facing a growth dilemma, and the three giants Alibaba, JD.com, and Pinduoduo are likely to be losers.

According to brokerage forecasts, JD.com's Q2 revenue GMV fell short of expectations, but profits exceeded expectations. Although Alibaba has introduced new strategies and products, it only slowed down the rate of market share loss. During the 618 festival, Taobao and Tmall's GMV achieved a 12% growth, slightly lower than the industry's overall 14%. Overall, Pinduoduo may still be the underdog.

Last week, Jack Ma returned to Alibaba's headquarters. This is the first high-profile return to Alibaba since affirming the effectiveness of Alibaba's reforms in April. With the reforms driving it, the GMV of Taobao and Tmall is showing signs of improvement, but the revenue growth rate will depend on whether the monetization tools launched in the second half of the year can keep up with GMV.

In addition, Alibaba is also a leader in AI layout in China. On the one hand, it has strong cash flow support, and on the other hand, it has a large amount of data in different fields that can be used for training. Previously, Jack Ma mentioned that "the AI era is just beginning, and everything is just getting started." Perhaps this return to Alibaba indicates that a clearer direction for AI development has been found