HIGHS AND LOWS
Highs China’s three internet behemoths, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent are racing towards the metaverse. Alibaba registered numerous trademarks, including Ali Metaverse. Tencent is taking a slightly different road: investing in companies already on their way to the metaverse. The United States gaming company Epic Games, of which Tencent owns 40%, is building its own metaverse. Baidu on the other hand is looking at smart hardware which users will need to plug in to the metaverse, such as VR headsets. China’s e-sports industry is expected to grow its market size by over 130% year-on-year and surpass RMB170 billion. Huya, China’s leading esports live-streaming company, released a report stating that due to the increased maturity of the industry and more policies and regulations, the esports ecosystem is only going to continue to grow and improve. JD Fresh, a part of the JD franchise, is ramping up efforts to import fresh produce as Chinese consumers are going all out on overseas fruit and vegetables. JD Fresh is working with four different exporters to bring in Chilean cherries, highly popular amongst Chinese buyers. A staggering 92% of all Chilean cherries land in China.
Lows China Evergrande Group has been branded the “world’s most indebted company” by the BBC. The property development company is at risk of becoming the country’s biggest defaulter after they missed a debt payment deadline of USD82.5 million on November 6. Evergrande was founded in Guangzhou in 1996 and has more than 1,300 real estate projects across China. A special government team has been drafted in to rescue the property tycoon. Weibo made a move to the Hong Kong stock market and lost more than 7% on its first day of trading in early December. The move to the Hong Kong market wasn’t the social media giant’s only blow of 2021; in the last six months of the year they lost almost a third of their value on the company’s US-listed shares. Alibaba and JD.com are other notable companies listed on both the US and Hong Kong stock market. Companies are said to be making moves between the two because of increased tension between China and the United States. On December 14, 2021, popular restaurant chain Element Fresh announced that they would be closing stores across China and filing for bankruptcy. The company stated that they have had financial difficulties since the pandemic began in January 2020. There are 31 restaurants in China across eight cities, but there have already been closures in both Shanghai and Beijing. An exact date for store closures hasn’t been released but some restaurants have stated that they will be open over the Spring Festival. 26 |JANUARY 2022
