Chinese e-commerce giant JD has secured a deal to serve as the exclusive interactive cooperation platform for the upcoming Spring Festival Gala,Watch Friends the country’s most-watched TV show featuring songs and comedy performances to welcome in the lunar new year. The second partnership between JD and state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) after the first in 2022, the deal is aimed at JD attracting more users in lower-tier cities. In a post on its WeChat account, JD says it will send 100 million gifts-in-kind that each winner will only need to pay RMB 0.01 to receive during the Gala. A JD employee was quoted by local media outlet LatePost as saying the firm’s Gala program involves thousands of staff who will take on “heavier marketing pressures” than those in 2022, with GMV and the number of transaction users being the direct metrics for them at what is traditionally a family time. The company’s revenue grew at a single-digit pace in the first three quarters of last year, with a 2% increase during the July and September period, far behind rival PDD’s 94%. [JD; LatePost, in Chinese]
