Jacob Cooke | Exploring and Explaining Another Record-Breaking 11/11 Singles Day

Topics Discussed and Key Points:

● How Singles’ Day performed relative to Jacob’s expectations

● Platforms that will gain traction at next year’s 11.11

● Notable creative or marketing tactics used at this year’s festival

● How this year’s GMV may compare to 2020s

● Whether there is still room for foreign brands going forward

● What to know about Pipl (Personal Information Protection Law)

● WPIC’s plans for Southeast Asia

● Demographic differences in China versus Southeast Asia

Episode Summary:

Today on The Negotiation, we speak with Jacob Cooke who shares his observations on Singles’ Day in 2021 and how closely the festival met his expectations.

In his words, how 11.11 unfolded was “almost bang on” with what Jacob anticipated, with a couple of categories “going a little bit over” and toys being the only underperformer.

It was a “Tmall-dominated shopping festival” that was largely untouched by the influx of new government regulations this year which, again, Jacob expected. He predicts more platforms gaining traction at next year’s 11.11 as Walled Gardens continue to come down and cross-platform functionality increases in scope.

Platforms also doubled down on live streams which had already been immensely popular in the Chinese market for some time, precisely because they know that live streams have become such an effective way to move product.

In many ways, “China is starting to become comfortable in their skin,” pushing for local champions in each of the different categories. While the country had been playing catch-up as recently as a decade ago, today local brands have been dominating in the market.

Finally, Jacob gives his thoughts on how companies will have to deal with the legal implications of Personal Information Protection Law, WPIC’s budding work in the Southeast Asia market, and demographic differences between the China market and that of Southeast Asia.

Key Quotes:

“There are a lot of misconceptions about why local brands are doing well. In a lot of cases, they have an easier time because they’re focused solely on China. Very few of them have global ambitions because the market is so large here.”

“I don’t think we’re done with regulators in terms of what’s done with personal data. I think that’s actually going to be further enhanced. [...] I think that what’s happened this year [with Pipl] is that the regulators have started to take action to make people take these new laws seriously.”

“eCommerce has normally been adopted by younger consumers. China’s done a really good job at making eCommerce universal.”