Amazon and Apple are the world’s most valuable brands but Chinese brands are rising up the leading list, including Alibaba.

Movements from Amazon

Amazon saw the number of Vietnamese merchants exporting goods worth from $1 million in Vietnam triple last year. The surge was driven by demand for tools, kitchenware, handicrafts, home goods, and apparel. “Vietnamese sellers have enriched our global product selection,” said Gijae Seong, head of Amazon Global Selling in Vietnam. Amazon Global Selling is to recruit more Vietnamese merchants on Amazon, booting e-commerce trade between Vietnam and its largest export market the US. The company opened a Hanoi office in March to train new sellers, adding to its Ho Chi Minh City branch. Seong said companies “have competitive advantages in manufacturing” in Vietnam, where factories have relocated from China to sidestep the trade war with the US, reducing other costs and risks.

Movements from Alibaba

Alibaba has also been making moves to have more Vietnamese sellers. The company planned to have over ten thousand SMEs selling on its platform by 2025. It has been working with government authorities since last year to run training programs for Vietnamese vendors. As of March, over 300 companies have been provided consultancy in online cross-border sales. Alibaba hopes its livestream services can stand out apart from US rivals including Microsoft and Amazon in the cloud market.

Alibaba competes with Amazon

The competition between the two giants is heating up as e-commerce booms in Vietnam with rising demand for online shopping amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s e-commerce market expanded by 18 percent last year to $11.8 billion, the only country in Southeast Asia to record double-digit growth amid the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Vietnam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency.

Sources of information include Nikkei Asia and Reuters.