During the Singles Day shopping festival from Nov. 1 to Nov. 11, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said Apple, L’Oreal, Estee Lauder, Lancome, Nike and Adidas were among the brands that exceeded 100 million yuan (about $15.2 million) each in gross merchandise value. GMV refers to the total dollar value of goods sold over a certain period of time.
“Many companies are looking to China now for growth,” said Daniel Zipser, senior partner at McKinsey. “We’ve definitely seen an increase in hiring, … seen companies turn their marketing initiatives toward China.”
In a Shanghai high-tech business park called Zhangjiang — home to local headquarters for many major multinationals such as Qualcomm, General Electric, HP, Novartis and AstraZeneca — the mood is changing as well, according to local business leader Cheng Dong.
There were companies leaving China, or laying off staff, but the sense is this trend is weakening, Cheng told CNBC last week. He is the vice-chair of the Shanghai association for overseas Chinese business and a representative to the national-level advisory body called the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
