Strong Regulation and AI Competition in Parallel

I. Regulators Move Densely, Platform Economy Enters “Deep Water”

Recently, regulatory actions in the e-commerce platform sector have intensified, marking a new stage in the governance of the platform economy.

On September 20, at the State Council Information Office’s themed press conference series “Getting Off to a Good Start in the 15th Five-Year Plan,” the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) identified three key regulatory directions for the platform economy during the 15th Five-Year Plan period: accelerate the amendment of the E-Commerce Law, promote the addition of penalty types such as proportional fines and suspension of relevant business; research and formulate compliance uation guidelines for online trading platforms, and accelerate the construction and application of the national online market supervision platform; and deepen the special action on platform verification and registration obligations, while deploying special actions such as governance of the livestreaming e-commerce industry and standardized governance of second-hand e-commerce platforms.

In terms of price competition regulation, SAMR proposed accelerating guidance for market competition to shift from “competing on price” to “competing on quality” on a sound track. It will guide industry associations in formulating cost calculation standards, promote the formation of a “1+1+N” legal system for regulating below-cost dumping, and strictly handle enterprises that take the lead in malicious low-price competition and disrupt production and business order in accordance with the law.

Earlier in June, the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation held regulatory talks with five e-commerce platforms—Taobao (Tmall), JD.com, Pinduoduo, Douyin and Xiaohongshu—and notified them of the second batch of typical problems in the comprehensive rectification of “involution-style” competition. Among them, Taobao (Tmall) was named for widely promoting the “June 18 Billion-Yuan Subsidy” while not actually investing 10 billion yuan, and for repeatedly refusing to provide the actual subsidy amount and contribution ratio. Pinduoduo was accused of unilaterally exempting the platform from statutory responsibilities in its promotion rules, while JD.com failed to disclose the promotion period and actual subsidy amount of its subsidy activities.

At the same time, regulators are also promoting win-win cooperation between platforms and all parties. On September 18, under the guidance of SAMR, market regulation bureaus from seven provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, including Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, together with eight platform enterprises—1688, Douyin Life Services, Kuaishou, Meituan, Taobao Shangou, Taotian, Xiaohongshu and Alipay—jointly signed the Cooperation Framework Agreement on Promoting the Development of Individual Businesses, deepening cooperation and alignment between market regulation departments and platform enterprises.

II. Platform Strategy Upgrades: AI-Driven and Ecosystem Co-building

Facing the upcoming Double 11 shopping festival, major platforms have been revealing their strategic cards.

JD.com was the first to make a move. On September 22, the 2026 JD.com Merchant Conference, themed “AI-Driven, Certain Growth,” was held in Beijing. JD.com released four major upgrade measures: its platform value proposition, first-party and POP synergy, increased support investment, and business environment optimization. Xu Ran, CEO of JD Group, said that JD.com will continue to use supply chain and AI as its two foundations to help merchants achieve certain growth, and that during the upcoming 11.11 it will drive the number of new merchants with sales exceeding 1 million yuan to increase by more than 60% year on year. At the AI tool level, the Jingmai AI Business Center has opened dozens of core AI tools to merchants, covering the complete business chain from product selection, listing, operations, fulfillment to after-sales. It has already helped 80% of new merchants significantly improve operational efficiency. JD.com’s design agent “Jingdiandian” can help merchants reduce material production costs by 99%, and the digital human JoyAvatar has served more than 90,000 merchants cumulatively. During June 18, the livestreaming duration and transaction volume of digital humans both grew more than fourfold year on year.

Taobao, meanwhile, has set its sights overseas. On September 21, Taobao announced new overseas campaign features for this year’s Double 11. It will launch simultaneously in 20 global markets, provide free shipping services in 13 countries and regions, and involve more than 1.2 million Taobao and Tmall merchants in going global. Ye Tian, head of Taobao’s overseas business, said the platform will focus on traffic, logistics and operations to help merchants run domestic and overseas markets simultaneously through “one investment, two businesses.” Notably, overseas goods have expanded from lightweight and small items to medium and large categories such as furniture and home decoration materials, with more than 90% of medium and large items to be shipped directly overseas.

WeChat Mini Shops has formally entered the major promotion battlefield. On September 22, WeChat Mini Shops announced at a briefing that this year is its first year of formally running major promotions. The Double 11 promotion will run from October 12 to November 15, lasting 35 days, and will offer platform subsidies and multiple campaign formats.

On the Douyin e-commerce side, data disclosed at the 2026 Douyin E-commerce Creator Summit held on September 20 showed that over the past year, Douyin e-commerce added more than 4.56 million new creators with sales, 70,000 new creators achieved a breakthrough from zero to 1 million yuan in annual transaction volume, and the total number of e-commerce creators across the platform exceeded 12 million.

III. AI Reshapes the Underlying Logic of E-commerce

AI is rising from an auxiliary tool to a key variable reshaping the underlying business logic of e-commerce. In mid-September, six major platforms—Taobao, JD.com, Douyin, Pinduoduo, Meituan and Kuaishou—had all launched or updated AI shopping capabilities. The battlefield of e-commerce competition has shifted from “grabbing traffic” to “competing on intelligence.”

One symbolic change is that “AI itself has become merchandise on the shelf.” On September 2, Zhipu AI opened the first official flagship store in the large model industry on Tmall, selling model invocation credits; on September 3, Tmall launched the “AI Space Station” (Token Recharge Center), showcasing subscription products from leading providers such as Alibaba Cloud, Zhipu AI and Kimi. On the first day of opening, Zhipu’s brand search volume rose 40-fold month on month and climbed to 50-fold within 48 hours.

Users’ shopping decision-making is also undergoing a fundamental shift. Survey data shows that 79.4% of consumers ask AI before placing an order, and AI’s influence on consumption decisions (43.7%) surpassed traditional media advertising (42.6%) for the first time. This means the e-commerce logic is evolving from “people looking for products” to “products looking for people” and then to “demand looking for products.”

In cross-border e-commerce, AI application is also accelerating. According to Ministry of Commerce data, the AI adoption rate of cross-border e-commerce enterprises has exceeded 60%. Liu Guangjun, vice president of Alibaba.com, proposed that cross-border e-commerce is moving from the B2B era to the “A2A (agent-to-agent)” era, where merchants only need to issue business instructions and AI can autonomously complete the entire business process. Mengxiang Technology, meanwhile, released its self-developed “AI Dou” on September 21, announcing its transformation from a traditional e-commerce platform into an AI-native company and its entry into the 3.0 agent era.

Policy is also actively following up. The Guiding Opinions on Better Serving the Real Economy and Promoting High-Quality Development of E-Commerce, previously issued by the Ministry of Commerce and five other departments, explicitly proposed developing “AI + e-commerce” and guiding e-commerce enterprises to strengthen the R&D and application of technologies such as large models. Jiangsu Province went further by releasing China’s first provincial-level special policy document focused on “AI + e-commerce,” announcing a 1 billion yuan special fund, and releasing the first batch of 163 high-quality e-commerce datasets and 166 AI agents.

IV. Trend Outlook

Taken together, recent developments show that the e-commerce industry stands at the intersection of two main lines.

On one hand, regulation is moving from “regulatory talks and rectification” to “institutional reconstruction.” Measures such as amending the E-Commerce Law, formulating compliance uation guidelines, and building a regulatory system for below-cost dumping mark a shift in platform economy governance from emergency-style regulation to the construction of a normalized and systematic institutional framework. Platform enterprises need to find a new balance between compliance costs and growth demands.

On the other hand, AI is deeply intervening in core links such as product selection, operations and fulfillment, from its role as a marketing tool, and has even spawned new business models such as GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). However, the computing power and cost thresholds of AI tools naturally favor leading brands. If small and medium-sized merchants “cannot afford them or cannot use them well,” they may become “invisible” in AI recommendation lists. This will be a new fairness issue that the industry must confront.

It can be foreseen that future e-commerce competition will be a dual contest of “compliance capabilities” and “intelligence capabilities”—whoever can take the lead in completing AI-driven efficiency transformation while operating in a compliant manner will seize the initiative in the new round of industry reshuffling.