China’s e-commerce upstarts will start to look more like Western ones

By Guy Scriven, Global business correspondent, The Economist

It did not take long for Chinese e-commerce firms to spread worldwide. Shein has rapidly become the preferred choice of American teenagers buying clothes. In 2023 TikTok launched its own e-commerce offering to its 1bn-plus users. And for most of 2024 Temu was America’s most downloaded app. But this rapid rise also attracted the scrutiny of policymakers. In 2025 this will force changes upon the upstarts that will make them more like their Western rivals.