Kaola

The second-largest player in China's cross-border e-commerce sector after Tmall Global is Kaola, a cross-border e-commerce platform that operates under the NetEase brand. The foundation of Kaola's business strategy is acquiring premium European products to sell to affluent Chinese households. In a market plagued by phony goods and counterfeits, NetEase's resources and reputation as a media and gaming company over the last two decades have aided Kaola in winning over customers.

Kaola was introduced in 2015 by NetEase, one of China's top online gaming and internet service providers. Tmall Global is the largest cross-border retail e-commerce site selling Western brands in China.

NetEase chose the moniker Kaola, which translates to "koala," because it wants its users to continue being "lazy and comfy" like the marsupial. With a quick delivery service, Kaola provides a large selection of products for baby and mother care, health care, beauty, and cosmetics. The $ 2 billion purchase of Kaola by Alibaba Group, which also owns Tmall, was announced in September 2019. This explains why Tmall and Kaola are connected frequently during significant business events.

Even though Kaola is still a relatively new competitor in the e-commerce space compared to Tmall or JD, it managed to overtake Tmall Global in early 2020 to become China's top cross-border e-commerce platform in 2019, with a market share of over 27.1%. Kaola generates less revenue than JD.com; now, we are at 69.979 million dollars versus 3.131 million dollars (2019 data).

It should be taken into account that its earnings have dramatically increased after the Covid-19 pandemic. Similar to other international e-commerce platforms, Kaola enables vendors to display their goods on a variety of forums, websites, and online advertising platforms.

Founded: 2015
Headquarter: 26F SP Twr D Tsinghua Science Park Bld 8 No 1 Zhongguancun E Rd Haidian, Beijing, 100084, China
Revenue: US$159.1m in 2021
Website: kaola.com