Amazon, facing entrenched rivals, to close online store in China
US company says Chinese marketplace to shut by July 18 but Kindle, cross-border e-commerce and the cloud business will remain
San Francisco/Beijing/Hong Kong — Amazon.com said it will shut its China online store by July 18, as the US e-commerce giant focuses on the lucrative businesses of selling overseas goods and cloud services in the world’s most populous nation. The move underscores how entrenched, home-grown e-commerce rivals have made it difficult for Amazon’s marketplace to gain traction in China. Consumer research firm iResearch Global said Alibaba’s Tmall marketplace and JD.com controlled 82% of the Chinese e-commerce market in 2019. An Amazon spokesperson said on Thursday that it is notifying sellers that it will no longer operate a marketplace, nor provide seller services on Amazon.cn.
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