What China's big earnings say about the consumer
BEIJING — Corporate earnings releases are picking up on a few bright spots for China's consumer in a competitive market where people are less willing to open their wallets.
JD.com, Tencent and Alibaba this month reported results for the three months ended June that pointed to a steady pick-up in consumer spending that quarter, but with less clarity on whether that growth has continued.
Here's where companies said they saw consumer-related growth, according to public disclosures and FactSet transcripts of earnings calls:
Electronics and home appliance revenues rose by 11.3% to 152.13 billion yuan ($20.98 billion) in the three months ended June.
But general merchandise revenue fell by 8.6% from a year ago to 81.72 billion yuan.
Marketing revenue rose by 8.5% to 22.51 billion yuan.
Livestreaming e-commerce saw 150% year-on-year growth in gross merchandise value in the second quarter to an unspecified number. GMV measures total sales value over a certain period of time.
On an annualized basis, that livestreaming GMV «is in the tens of billions» yuan.
WeChat Mini program e-commerce has GMV «in the trillions» of yuan on an annualized basis. GMV for physical products has exceeded 1 trillion yuan on an annualized basis.
Advertising revenue across all categories — except automotive — is up double-digits from a year ago in recent weeks. Ad sales rose by 34% to 25 billion yuan in the quarter ended June.
Overall, Tencent reported earnings for the quarter that missed expectations, but showed a third-straight quarter of revenue growth.
Direct China commerce sales, primarily from Tmall Supermarket and Tmall Global, grew by 21% year-on-year to 30.17 billion yuan.
The overall Taobao and Tmall Group saw revenue grow by 12% to 114.95
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