William KongE: williamkong@ust.hk I.Sector Review Internet & E-commerce JD.com opens first JD MALL in Hong Kong as total local investment The first JD MALL in Hong Kong has opened in Wan Chai on 18 June.Furthermore, during the 618 promotional period, JD.com’s (京东) Kai Bo FoodSupermarket (佳宝超市) also officially opened its 100th store in Hong Kong.JD.com’s localized services continue to be upgraded, including “no-thresholdpackage shipping for one item” for JD Hong Kong & Macao, and JD Logistics’ Pinduoduo to roll out “Quality Packaging” service Pinduoduo (拼多多) recently announced the launch of its “Quality Packaging”service, which beganon 14 June. Merchants can choose to enable the service,and orders with a dedicated label must follow the platform’s unified packagingstandards. All packaging material costs are borne by the merchants. The outerpackaging must use at least three layers of new rigid corrugated cardboard Taobao Flash kicks off its “Icy Festival” with storeson the platformup by Taobao Flash (淘宝闪购) recently kicked off its summer “Icy Festival”. Througha range of measures such as enhanced red-envelope benefits, expandedcategory and product supply, and upgraded fulfillment services, it works withmillions of offline stores to tap into summertime niche demand. A spokesperson East Buy opens second offline store in Xi’an East Buy’s (东方甄选) first store in Xi’an is under construction and scheduled toopen on 15 July. The store is located on South 2nd Ring Road in Xi’an, and itwill be East Buy’s second offline experience store. On 21 May 21, the companyopened its first offline experience store nationwide in Beijing’s Zhongguancun Xianyu launches a “No-Worry Selling” mode to help sellers clear Xianyu (闲鱼) has recently introduced a “No-Worry Selling” mode for sellers.The programme helps items sell faster by using intelligent pricingrecommendations and traffic-weighted support. It provides sellers with a low-barrier, high-efficiency channel for business growth. Xianyu’s “No-WorrySelling” mode significantly reduces operating costs. Sellers can apply for “No- Meituan Delivery to pilot new rules for merchants’ ‘Store Score’ Meituan Delivery (美团外卖) recently announced that it will pilot a new set ofrules for merchants’ “Store Score” in multiple cities. The update adds two food-safety indicators: “store authenticity verification” and “back-of-houseenvironment verification”. Together, these two indicators account for 20% of the Youzan’s mini program connects to WeChat’s AI ecosystem, serving Youzan (有赞) has recently integrated its mini program with WeChat’s AIecosystem, one of the first companies to participate in internal testing for thisservice. Through Youzan’s mini program, merchants can connect to WeChat AIand provide consumers with various intelligent service experiences. It coversmany merchant types, including e-commerce, retail, and local services, helping New products launched during Tmall 618 event that exceeds 10 million Tmall (天猫) data shows that the number of new products that were launchedafter the start of 618 event and generated over 10 million yuan in salessurpassed the prior year by 60%. Among the top 100 best-selling items in thefirst phaseof the event, new products accounted for one-third. New productbooms have appeared across a wider variety of categories. In last year’s 618event, million-yuan new products mainly fell into 26 categories; this year, thenumber has doubled to 53 categories. The top 10new products by sales before Department Stores & Shopping Mall Shanghai’s second-largest shopping mall to open on 30 June Shanghai PRISMA XinJiaCenter recently announced that it will open on 30June. With a gross floor area of 360,000 sqm, this “all-inclusive lifestyle”flagship commercial complex will be the largest mall in Pudongareaand thesecond largest in Shanghai. The PRISMA XinJia Center integrates Food & Beverage Subway China plans to open 350 new stores in 2026 Subway China CEO Zhu Fuqiang recently announced that the company plansto open 350 new stores in 2026, the highest number of new store openingssince the brand entered China 31 years ago. As of 5 June 2026, Subway Chinahadexceeded 1,200 stores, with 320 opened in 2025. The number of newopenings over the past two years has surpassed the total for the previous 28years combined. The company plans to open more than 50 new locations in Oatly executivesin Chinaexploreabuyout of China business The management team of Swedish oat milk giant Oatly Group’s Greater Chinabusiness has recently been considering amanagement buyout, with ongoingnegotiations now entering a substantive stage. If the deal is completed, Oatly’sChina would shift from being a wholly owned subsidiary of the headquarters to II.Policy Spotlight Two government departments support major e-commerce platforms in On 11 June, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and InformationTechnology and the General Office of the State Administration for MarketRegulation