China Digital Digest Weekly: Exploring the Chinese Digital Landscape
- ClickInsights
- 20 hours ago
- 4 min read
Hi folks, we are back with our weekly edition of China’s Digital Digest, wherein we bring you weekly updates on China’s digital space. The report takes a quick glance at China’s complex and rapidly evolving social media landscape by providing updates on the latest happenings across the social media industry. Here are the major highlights of the report.
1. China Bans Ecommerce Platforms from Forcing Lowest Prices or Abusing Algorithms
China has unveiled new rules to rein in aggressive pricing tactics by online platforms, prohibiting e-commerce operators from forcing merchants to offer discounts or setting different prices based on user demographics without consent.
The 29-article regulation was jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), and Cyberspace Administration of China. To restore merchant autonomy on pricing, the rules ban platform operators from leveraging their dominant scale to impose “lowest price” agreements. Platforms are prohibited from using traffic throttling, search ranking demotions, or algorithm penalties to pressure merchants into predatory price-cutting or exclusive pricing arrangements.
2. Alibaba Ramps Up China Instant Commerce Push With Cainiao And Tmall Tie-Up
Alibaba Group’s logistics arm Cainiao and online grocery business Tmall Supermarket are teaming up to expand fulfilment infrastructure and speed up deliveries.
Cainiao will launch new or expand instant commerce warehouses for Tmall Supermarket across 31 mainland Chinese cities by the end of January 2026. The tie-up was expected to bolster Taobao’s Shangou instant commerce business, Cainiao said. It would enable groceries and consumer goods ranging from beverages to cosmetics ordered from Tmall Supermarket via Taobao Shangou to be delivered in as little as four hours.
3. Alibaba’s AI Assistant “Qwen” Integrates Amap, Kicking Off Ecosystem Integration Strategy
Alibaba has announced that its AI assistant app Qwen has integrated with Amap, marking a key first step in connecting Alibaba’s vast ecosystem of consumer and local services.
The move signals Qwen’s evolution from a pure conversational chatbot into a service-oriented AI agent capable of understanding and acting in the physical world.
Through system-level integration, Qwen now taps into Amap’s spatial intelligence engine—handling over 100 billion API calls daily—as well as a global database of more than 200 million points of interest (POIs). This enables the assistant to generate actionable, real-world solutions based on real-time, high-precision geospatial data.
4. ByteDance Unveils Seedance 1.5 Pro
ByteDance's Seed team has officially launched Seedance 1.5 Pro, a next-generation audio-video creation model capable of joint audio-video generation.
It supports multiple tasks, including text-to-audio-video synthesis and image-guided audio-video creation. The model is now available on Jimeng AI and Doubao platforms. Compared to version 1.0, it elevates visual impact and narrative coordination while maintaining stability. Key features include native multi-language and dialect support, cinema-grade camera movements like the Hitchcock zoom, and deep semantic understanding of complex contexts.
5. TikTok Signs Trump-Backed Deal to Avoid US Ban
TikTok has reached a deal to form a joint venture that will allow it to continue operating in the US, five years after Donald Trump threatened to ban the social media platform over privacy and national security concerns, a move that further strained relations with China.
ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, has signed a deal with Larry Ellison’s Oracle, the private-equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX that will allow it to retain control of its core US operations. Under the arrangement, the joint venture will take over part of TikTok’s US business, including data protection, algorithm security and content moderation.
6. Shein Avoids France Site Ban After Removing Illegal Goods
A French court has rejected the state’s request to suspend Shein’s site in France as “disproportionate” after the e-commerce giant removed illicit products sold on its platform.
French authorities had requested the ultra-fast-fashion giant’s site be blocked for three months after weapons, banned medications and childlike sex dolls were found on the platform. The authorities asked that the Chinese online platform only be reopened if it applied strict new measures to prevent a repeat of the offences. The Paris judicial court acknowledged a “serious harm to public order”, but found their sale of the items in question had been “sporadic” and noted that Shein had removed the products.
7. Rednote Restructures Core Community Operations, Launches “Live” and “Village” Units to Drive Growth
Rednote has restructured its core community operations, shifting from a vertical content-based model to a goal-oriented structure to support user growth.
The community division has been split into two units: the Live Department, led by Yunfan and reporting to COO Conan, focusing on professionally generated and mid- to long-form video content; and the Village Department, led by Xindao under community head Paru. The move comes as Rednote targets 300 million daily active users, with its valuation reaching US$26 billion by mid-2025, and aims to better align product, operations, and R&D to drive its next phase of growth.
8. Tencent Steps Up Core AI Push as Former OpenAI Researcher Takes Chief Scientist Role
Tencent has rolled out a major restructuring of its large-model research organization, aiming to consolidate resources and strengthen its in-house AI capabilities.
As part of the overhaul, the company has established three new units—the AI Infrastructure (AI Infra) Department, AI Data Department, and Data Computing Platform Department—and appointed Vinces Yao, a former OpenAI researcher, as Chief AI Scientist of the CEO/President’s Office. Yao will also concurrently lead Tencent’s AI Infra and Large Language Model teams.
Wrapping Up
The vast and diverse nature of the Chinese Social Media space makes it incredibly challenging to keep a tab on the rapid developments taking place. However, China’s Digital Digest brings you all the latest updates from there to keep you abreast of all the evolving trends.
To delve deeper into the findings of our latest report, click here.