bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

Tracy Qu

Jane Zhang

Minghe Hu

Xiong Jingfang opened her convenience store four years ago on a narrow street in downtown Nanchang, the capital of eastern China’s Jiangxi province. Last year, her shop became one of the thousands of pickup points in the city, joining in China’s latest Big Tech trend: community group buying.
When residents of her surrounding neighbourhood place orders with their group for vegetables, fruit, meat, and snacks, deliveries will arrive at Xiong’s store for pickup and she’ll make a commission as the last stop in a much larger logistics strategy.
However, the amount she is able to make has dropped steadily from 10 per cent in late 2020 to now as little as 1 per cent.
“It has become just a sideline. I’ll take orders when they come in, but now it does not really make much difference,” the 29-year-old Xiong said.
Behind Xiong’s dampened enthusiasm is a much broader cooling of a once-hot business model, as it comes under increasing scrutiny from Beijing, worried about its potential disruption of traditional distribution networks of wholesale markets and family-run shops – as well as tens of millions of jobs.

Community group buying has become an easy target amid Beijing’s change of heart about the country’s Big Tech, with stated media reports attacking the business model as greedy capitalists trying to steal business from local business owners just trying to get by.
Billed by ever-hungry internet companies as a way to cut out the middleman by connecting food suppliers directly with end customers, community group buying has all the hallmarks of “blitzscaling”: aggressively growing the business by sacrificing profits for new users.
Nanchang, with a population of 6 million and annual disposable income per capita reached about 47,000 yuan (US$7,399), represents the kind of market companies like Meituan, Pinduoduo (PDD), and Didi Chuxing are trying to crack: densely populated urban areas with mostly price-sensitive consumers.
MMC, a new business unit that Alibaba Group Holding created in March, recently opened a local distribution centre in Nanchang with around 200 employees as the e-commerce giant tries to catch up to the smaller players who already have a first-mover advantage in the new business model. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.
How Meituan and Pinduoduo are transforming remote Chinese towns with community group buying
Inside an MMC warehouse on the outskirts of the city, cooking oil and bottled drinks – popular products in community group buying – are stacked high as red-vested employees bustle about. Prominent banners read “Help your neighbours save money” and “You are making our community fresh and lovely”.
With tactics such as ultra-low pricing, selling a kilogram of rice for just 1 yuan for example, as well as creating incentives for group buying leaders and pickup point owners like Xiong, Meituan’s community group buying business had expanded to more than 2,600 cities and counties nationwide by the end of the first quarter this year. 
The new business, according to the Beijing-based delivery and lifestyle services giant’s latest earnings report, accounted for almost half of the company’s 59 million new paying customers. 
However, Meituan also reported a wider net loss of 4.8 billion yuan, compared with 1.7 billion in the same period last year, mostly attributed to heavy investments in new businesses, including community group buying. 

The community group buying market is expected to be worth about 104 billion yuan this year, a 38 per cent increase from last year, according to e-commerce consulting firm 100ec.cn.
As the new business model grows, so too does the central government’s concerns.
“Excessively low prices may force small shops and vegetable vendors in the community to close,” Luo Xiang, an analyst at research firm LeadLeo said.
At the end of last year, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and the Ministry of Commerce summoned Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com. Meituan, PDD and Didi Chuxing to send them a clear message.
“It is strictly prohibited to sell products below cost with the purpose of squeezing out competitors or seeking monopoly positions,” the SAMR said in a statement at the time.
Community group buying has brought Big Tech’s disruption to China’s smaller cities but are they ready for it?
Platforms, however, seem to have needed more reminding.
In March, SAMR fined the group buying platforms of Didi Chuxing, Meituan, and PDD as well as Alibaba-backed Nice Tuan, for price dumping and fraud.
In late May, Nice Tuan was fined 1.5 million yuan by SAMR again for failing to take action on such behaviour in a move seen as “kill the chicken to frighten the monkey”. 
According to a report by local media LatePost last week, platforms such as Meituan Select and PDD’s Duoduo Maicai were told to halt pricing promotions that promised almost 100 per cent discounts.

“[The crackdown by SAMR] may help the market to avoid the similar situation faced by the bicycle-sharing and ride-hailing services markets,” Luo of LeadLeo said. “Companies burned money to force competitors to quit the market, and increased the price after they dominated the market.”
However, as the government seeks to avoid the mistakes of the past, companies have been forced to re-evaluate their strategies.
“After rapid expansion, community group buying has entered an adjustment period to ensure profit,” said Du Yueying, an analyst at Guosheng Securities, in a research note. “The giants have begun to reduce the commission rate for group buying leaders and the costs of local warehouses.”
None of the companies mentioned in this story immediately responded to requests for comment. 

Demand for group buying, however, has not diminished much, at least not for the gig workers responsible for delivering goods from warehouse to pickup point.
When the Post visited Xiong’s shop, a middle-aged delivery rider working for Meituan came in to drop off several boxes of fruit and vegetables for local customers.
Sweating all over, he still had many orders to deliver to other communities scattered around the city.
“I don’t have time to talk with you,” he said, rushing back to his van.



China’s Big Tech puts the brakes on community group buying as government scrutiny increases

The next big thing for China’s Big Tech has raised red flags over its  threats to traditional distribution networks of wholesale markets and family-run shops – as well as tens of millions of jobs.

Photo: EPA-EFE

Traditional retailers and service outlets in a Nanchang street. Photo: Tracy Qu

Inside a warehouse of MMC, a unit of Alibaba, in suburb of Chinese city of Nanchang. Photo: Tracy Qu

Items waiting at a pickup point in Nanchang. Photo: Tracy Qu

A peek of the Chengxin warehouse for community group buying platform Chengxin Youxuan, owned by Didi Chuxing, in Nanchang, Jiangxi province. Photo: Orange Wang

Tech

Big Tech

Policy

Tech Trends

Business

China Business


China’s Big Tech platforms have applied their default strategy of ‘blitzscaling’ to grocery delivery in the country’s price-sensitive areas
Beijing has become increasingly concerned, as the new business model threatens traditional distribution channels and tens of millions of jobs



Tech giants have been expanding their community group buying business model aggressively in China’s price-sensitive markets, but concerns over systemic risk have spurred the government to cool things off.


China technology

E-commerce

China economy

China society

China’s Big Tech puts the brakes on community group buying as government scrutiny increases

China’s Big Tech platforms have applied their default strategy of ‘blitzscaling’ to grocery delivery in the country’s price-sensitive areas Beijing has become increasingly concerned, as the new business model threatens traditional distribution channels and tens of millions of jobs

China’s Big Tech platforms have applied their default strategy of ‘blitzscaling’ to grocery delivery in the country’s price-sensitive areas

Beijing has become increasingly concerned, as the new business model threatens traditional distribution channels and tens of millions of jobs