For this year's Singles' Day sale, Taobao has launched an extensive campaign in Taiwan to attract customers with subsidies totalling $94 million."A war is afoot", "hand chopping", "bleed out" and "killing spree" — these seemingly violent terms are frequently seen on Taiwan's news pages and social media posts at this time of year, every year."Hand chopping" is internet slang for spending money.
However, with the threat of real conflict between China and Taiwan looming, some fear Taiwanese consumers' embrace of the Chinese shopping sites could have security implications.In October, Taobao announced a $NT2 billion package to subsidise shipping, handling and tax for customers in Taiwan.Previously, shopping on Taobao was a complicated process for buyers in Taiwan, as they often had to rely on third-party shipping services to receive purchases in China and forward them to Taiwan.
In late 2020, Chinese authorities abruptly called off what would have been the world's largest initial public offering from Ant Group, a fintech affiliate of Alibaba. In May this year, PDD overtook Alibaba in market cap to become the most valuable e-commerce company in the world's second-largest economy.
In 2020, Taiwan's Investment Commission found that the company was "in effect" controlled by Chinese company Alibaba, in violation of the island's law governing Chinese investments.