Mobile Internet companies may be fueling China’s rapid growth, but it won’t be for much longer if those companies stop setting trends.
So Chinese tech giants Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu are looking for the next big thing in the lifestyle market—and spending billions to do it. The companies are investing in service-based apps for fields like bike sharing, child care, and even face lifts.
Experts think it’s a strategy the tech titans are using to sustain their rapid growth. According to the Wall Street Journal, both e-commerce company Alibaba and social media company Tencent have gained 40 percent in their stock prices this year.
Alibaba’s projected revenue for 2018 could grow by as much as 49 percent, but that’s only if it keeps innovating. By pairing merchants with consumers all in one app, companies are betting they’ll be in a better position to compete for customers as the number of Chinese Internet users nears its peak.
China’s three biggest internet companies are competing with similar products like online video streaming and cloud computing, as their options for growth diminish.
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