Amid fast-paced changes that fill the business community with excitement, angst and trepidation, EqualOcean will publish a series of roundup articles to document the major events related to Chinese companies going global every week.
Weekly Overview（15/03-21/03）
1. Xunlei (迅雷) reported total revenue of 462 million USD for the full year of 2025, with its overseas business nearly doubling in growth.
2. KKV opened its first store on Lee Tung Avenue in Hong Kong, accelerating its layout in the Southeast Asian market.
3. J&T Express (极兔速递) signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement with the Sao Paulo State University in Brazil.
4. Ugreen (绿联科技) reached a deep strategic cooperation with MiniMax.
5. BYD (比亚迪) secured an order for 100,000 vehicles in Latin America, with its Brazil plant accelerating expansion to a capacity of 600,000 units.
6. Didi (滴滴) recorded stellar performance in 2025 as its international business accelerated, with order volume increasing by 24.9% year-on-year.
7. ByteDance (字节跳动) paused the global release of Seedance 2.0 to address copyright disputes.
8. JD.com's (京东) Joybuy landed in six European countries, directly rivaling Amazon.
9. Shein (希音) settled in Barcelona, Spain, to strengthen its European localization layout.
10. Temu added 14 million users in Europe over six months, with growth rates in Spain and Italy leading the way.
11. NVIDIA teamed up with automakers such as BYD (比亚迪) and Geely (吉利) to promote the research and development of L4 autonomous driving.
12. MOLLYTEA (茉莉奶白) set an overseas sales record with its first store in Singapore.
13. A GAC Group (广汽集团) executive estimated that the company's vehicle sales in Brazil will reach 100,000 units by 2030.
14. Alibaba (阿里巴巴) launched its enterprise AI platform WuKong (悟空) and plans for global expansion.
Selected Developments
1. BYD (比亚迪) Secures 100,000-Unit Order in Latin America as Brazil Plant Accelerates Expansion to 600,000-Unit Capacity
[Event] Recently, BYD (比亚迪) Executive Vice President Stella Li (李柯) announced in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that the BYD (比亚迪) Brazil plant successfully secured new energy vehicle export orders totaling 100,000 units from Argentina and Mexico. According to the agreement, Argentina and Mexico will each receive 50,000 units. This major progress marks the entry of BYD's (比亚迪) Latin American strategy, centered on Brazil, into a phase of large-scale operation.
As the core for order delivery, the BYD (比亚迪) Camaçari plant in Brazil officially commenced production on July 1, 2025. The factory was built on the former site of a Ford plant with a total investment of 5.5 billion BRL, achieving its first vehicle roll-off in just 15 months. Currently, the plant has an annual capacity of 150,000 units, with plans for phased expansion to 600,000 units to radiate across the entire Mercosur market. This base is not only BYD's (比亚迪) largest overseas vehicle manufacturing center but also integrates battery assembly and commercial vehicle production functions.
The plant primarily produces popular models such as the Dolphin Mini (海豚Mini, known domestically as the Seagull), BYD King (比亚迪King), and Song Pro (宋Pro). Among them, the Dolphin Mini (海豚Mini) has become a phenomenal product in the Brazilian market due to its high cost-performance ratio, successfully topping the monthly passenger car sales chart in Brazil in February 2026, becoming the first pure electric model to achieve this honor locally.
In the face of gradually increasing automobile import tariffs in Latin American countries, BYD (比亚迪) has achieved dual advantages in cost and efficiency through localized production. Estimates show that local assembly in Brazil can reduce total vehicle costs by approximately 22% and significantly shorten delivery cycles. Currently, the localization rate of the plant's employees has exceeded 70%, and it is expected to directly and indirectly create approximately 20,000 jobs for the local community in the future.
2. Didi (滴滴) Delivers Strong 2025 Performance with Accelerated International Business
[Event] Recently, Didi (滴滴) released its fourth-quarter and full-year results for 2025. For the full year of 2025, the total order volume of Didi's (滴滴) core platforms (China Mobility and International Business) reached 18.24 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14%. The Gross Transaction Value (GTV) reached 450.8 billion CNY, up 14.8% year-on-year. The company achieved a net profit of 1 billion CNY for the year, with an adjusted EBITA profit of 3.67 billion CNY for its core platforms.
The international business performed particularly well, with annual order volume reaching 4.505 billion, a year-on-year increase of 24.7%, and GTV reaching 117 billion CNY, up 28.2% year-on-year. The international mobility business has achieved adjusted EBITA profitability for two consecutive years.
In core Latin American markets, Didi (滴滴) is accelerating its evolution into a one-stop life services platform through a diversified layout of "mobility + food delivery + finance." In Brazil, Didi (滴滴) has accumulated 55 million active users through its local brand "99," holding a market share of approximately 40% in the mobility business, and restarted its food delivery business in April 2025, which now covers over 60 cities. In Mexico, Didi's (滴滴) services cover more than 70 cities and over 30 million users, with market shares in both mobility and food delivery ranking first. Additionally, the digital financial products DiDi Pay and the DiDi Cuenta savings account, which offers a 15% annual yield, are deeply integrating into the local financial ecosystem in Mexico.
3. JD.com's (京东) Joybuy Launches in Six European Countries, Directly Rivaling Amazon
[Event] On March 16, JD.com (京东) Group announced the official launch of its European online retail brand, Joybuy, initially covering six countries: the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. After approximately one year of pilot operations, Joybuy has achieved "211" delivery speed in over 30 core cities such as London, Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam through its self-built local warehousing and logistics network—meaning orders placed before 11:00 AM are delivered the same day, and those placed before 11:00 PM arrive the next day.
Joybuy fulfillment in Europe relies on more than 60 warehouses and distribution centers, along with its own delivery network, JoyExpress. Among them, the first overseas "Smart Wolf" warehouse located in Milton Keynes, UK, has been put into use, deploying nearly 200 automated devices to increase picking and outbound efficiency by approximately four times. Unlike the "direct shipping from China" light-asset model commonly adopted in the industry, JD.com (京东) insists on shortening delivery paths and improving efficiency through localized heavy-asset investment.
To enhance user stickiness, Joybuy launched the JoyPlus membership service, with a monthly fee priced at approximately 3.99 GBP (significantly lower than Amazon Prime's 8.99 GBP in the UK). The platform currently covers all categories including technology, appliances, beauty, and fresh food, attracting international brands like L'Oréal, De'Longhi, and Braun. Notably, Joybuy has reached a strategic cooperation with Kweichow Moutai (贵州茅台) to become its online retailer for the full range of products exported to the UK. Furthermore, Chinese hard-tech products such as Unitree (宇树科技) are also selling well on the platform.
The full launch of Joybuy marks the practical stage of Richard Liu's vision to "rebuild a JD.com (京东) in Europe." JD.com (京东) CFO Ian Shan revealed at the earnings call that Joybuy received positive feedback during its pilot operation, with the logistics experience becoming a core differentiating advantage. Currently, JD.com (京东) also plans to strengthen its offline network by acquiring the European consumer electronics giant CECONOMY. Within just two days of its launch, the Joybuy App topped the iOS and Android shopping application download charts in the aforementioned six countries.
4. NVIDIA (英伟达) Partners with Automakers Including BYD (比亚迪) and Geely (吉利) to Advance L4 Autonomous Driving R&D
[Event] On March 17, at the NVIDIA (英伟达) GTC 2026 conference held in San Jose, California, founder and CEO Jensen Huang announced several major collaborations regarding L4 autonomous driving. BYD (比亚迪), Geely (吉利), and Nissan have all selected NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion as the reference architecture for their next-generation L4 autonomous driving mass production projects. This platform integrates high-performance computing with a full suite of sensor systems, aiming to accelerate the process of autonomous driving from research and development to global large-scale deployment.
5. Alibaba (阿里巴巴) Launches Enterprise AI Platform WuKong (悟空) with Plans for Global Expansion
[Event] On March 17, at the 2026 AI DingTalk 2.0 Annual Product Launch, Alibaba (阿里巴巴) officially released the world's first enterprise-level AI-native work platform—"WuKong" (悟空). The platform aims to provide an "AI Agent Army" working 24/7 for every team and company, marking DingTalk's (钉钉) official evolution from a collaborative office tool into an AI-native work platform.
"WuKong" (悟空) is currently open for invitation testing as a standalone application and is directly built into the DingTalk (钉钉) system, which covers over 20 million enterprises and organizations. It can natively connect to a user's DingTalk (钉钉) account, security access permissions, and application systems. Unlike other AI products on the market, WuKong (悟空) features a built-in enterprise-grade operating environment where all operations are conducted in a security sandbox to ensure data safety and compliance while keeping token consumption and costs transparent.
In terms of functional connectivity, WuKong (悟空) not only supports DingTalk (钉钉) but will also connect to global mainstream instant messaging platforms such as WeChat (微信), Slack, and Microsoft Teams in the future, supporting remote activation via PC and mobile devices. Alibaba (阿里巴巴) is gradually embedding the business capabilities of its subsidiaries, such as Taobao (淘宝), Tmall (天猫), 1688, Alipay (支付宝), and Alibaba Cloud (阿里云), into WuKong (悟空) as "skills," making it the unified outlet for Alibaba (阿里巴巴) AI in enterprise work scenarios.
This release also marks the first major move by Alibaba's (阿里巴巴) newly established Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) business group. Directly led by Group CEO Eddie Wu (吴泳铭), the core mission of the ATH business group is to build an AI productivity ecosystem around the creation, delivery, and application of tokens. The WuKong (悟空) business unit, as its core component, is positioned to create a B-end AI application portal, deeply integrating model capabilities into enterprise workflows.
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Since 2018, EqualOcean has been dedicated to tracking and analyzing the global expansion of Chinese enterprises. We welcome contributions from industry professionals to share your expertise and insights. Companies seeking international growth, media exposure, or discussions on overseas strategies are also encouraged to contact us directly.
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