You’d Like to Be a Cat That Falls From the Sky

by Nate

Literally, that’s what it means, Tmall天猫, a phonetic translation of the fastest growing e-commerce site targeted at mainland Chinese consumers which saw a growth in transactions from 25 billion yuan (2.4 billion pounds) in 2010 to 520 billion yuan (50.2 billion pounds) in 2013, according to Wall Street Journal. However, it’s not the figures that should interest you but the fact that Chinese consumers view the Cat as the one place immune to the cancerous parasitic counterfeit reality in Chinese e-commerce as they only feature retailers with registered trademarks in China. The most outrageous example that I have come across so far with Chinese counterfeits was in an Asian supermarket based in Hackney where they juxtapositioned 2 identical instant noodles with 24p-difference in price with a disclaimer – fake 65p, real 89p. The reason for the noodles story is obviously to introduce this hilarious video made by a Dutch ad agency. And yes, Shin noodles, those ones, I’ve got 5 in my cupboard.

(continued with my last email to you on why we should re-think China’s Tier 1,2,3,4,x cities to expand your business, I hope Tom has read it and if he is reading, i’d like him to know that I can do more about criticising (bitching) about others 😀 )

With Apple and New Balance opening “Flagship” stores on Tmall.com, Yes, they chose the word “Flagship旗舰”,  it’s safe to say that the digital has completely transformed the concept of place and space. Tmall, the Cat from the sky is the king of all cats, particularly powerful against copycats. To demonstrate cats power, please go on BuzzFeed.com, or read on and you will find out that ASOS, the most idolised European online fashion retailer is planning to open a Tmall storefront in late April, offering (literally, like in the sense of sacrificing) 50% off a cardigan sweater to pull traffic. It was merely a few months ago in Nov that they launched their Chinese website that got the fashion industry bouncing off the walls.

Since you’ve pretty much got the idea why China’s space (especially air-space where territorial cats live) could be the intimidatingly huge with amazing potentials, I’d like to point out that cats can be a bit too smart for our own good.

As we conclude our discussion on china’s digital space, I’d like to point out that as the culture/film snob that I am (or possibly wanky), my favourite space is a concept called non-space (Ok, definitely wanky). There’s this 1967 French film called 2,3 Things I know About Her, which explores the concept (omg so wanky, call the police).

Thanks Tom!