Wildberries marketplace enters market of China

10:52, 19 декабря 2023, Bishkek - 24.kg news agency , Tatyana KUDRYAVTSEVA

The head of Wildberries, Tatyana Bakalchuk, in an interview with RBC, confirmed the company’s entry into the Chinese market. Local sellers and manufacturers will directly supply products to the site for all countries of its presence.

According to her, Russian business remains a priority. This won’t affect it. The company’s activities abroad now account for about 10 percent of the company’s total turnover, with just over 90 percent coming from Russia.

«Now we are starting to work with manufacturers and sellers from China — they will directly supply products to our site for all countries of our presence,» Tatyana Bakalchuk said.

In the summer, Vedomosti, citing a source in the marketplace, reported on Wildberries’ plans to enter the Chinese market. Then the media outlet, relying on data from the open register of the China Trademark Office, wrote about the registration of the brand there in all 45 classes of the International Classification of Goods and Services. The online platform filed similar applications in Singapore and Thailand. Over the past two years, Wildberries has registered a trademark in India, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mongolia, Afghanistan and North Korea.

The marketplace is now represented in Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Israel and Azerbaijan. The company was previously present in the U.S., Germany, France, UK, Italy and Spain, but left them after February 2022.

The company was founded in 2004 by spouses Tatyana and Vladislav Bakalchuk. Now Wildberries is the largest Russian marketplace. In the first half of 2023, turnover from sales of goods and services (GMV) of Wildberries increased by 94 percent compared to the same period last year and amounted to 1.22 trillion rubles.