haitong int'l's report pointed out that there are several trends in the e-commerce battlefield worth noting recently, including pdd holdings (PDD.US) indeed relaxing restrictions on merchants, such as lowering commission rates, waiving express delivery fees for remote packages, etc., thus merchants who left pdd holdings at the beginning of this year to go to Alibaba (09988.HK) may return to the pdd holdings platform, although it may take time.

The bank believes that under the pressure from pdd holdings, Alibaba's story of increasing commission rates may be affected, and the bank is not confident that Alibaba can narrow the gap between customer management revenue (CMR) and gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the short term. As for Douyin, the company has returned to relying on brand merchants, as its low stock price strategy has not been proven effective, and its live streaming model is difficult for small and medium-sized business owners to afford.

Compared to emerging platforms, the bank prefers traditional e-commerce platforms because their competition is more rational. The positioning of future platforms will be clearer, with shelf e-commerce platforms mainly serving as distribution channels for various merchants and products, while emerging platforms will focus more on helping brand merchants with marketing. With the rebound of the e-commerce industry, looking ahead to the next one to two months, the bank is most bullish on jd.com-SW (09618.HK) among the three major traditional enterprises, with Meituan-W (03690.HK) also being its top choice, with target prices at 45 yuan and 180 yuan respectively.