1. Scale continues to expand Today, with the booming digital economy, the e-commerce industry is reshaping the global business landscape at an unprecedented speed. A survey report on the value of the global e-commerce market and future growth trends released by Stocklytics shows that the value of the e-commerce market is expected to reach 4.11 trillion US dollars in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 15% in 2023. Coincidentally, this view is basically consistent with the data from Statista, which also pointed out that the e-commerce market revenue is expected to reach 411.7 million US dollars in 2024. It is worth mentioning that the e-commerce market will continue to grow in the next few years, but it will enter a state of slowing growth. This is understandable. The e-commerce market ushered in a spring of rapid development in previous years, and now it is becoming increasingly saturated, and the growth rate is naturally not as good as before. The continued hotness of the global e-commerce market is due to the interaction of many factors, among which the constantly updated and iterated new technologies are one of the important factors. It is said that "science and technology are the first productive force". Previously, McKinsey & Company clearly pointed out that as artificial intelligence is more and more widely used in the field of e-commerce, AI will be able to bring an additional 20% of revenue to the e-commerce industry in the next few years. This is indeed the case. Technology is the core driving force for the development of the e-commerce industry. Cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, virtual reality/augmented reality are being widely used in the e-commerce field, which not only greatly improves consumers' shopping experience, but also brings unlimited possibilities to this industry. 2. The strong rise of Chinese e-commerce platforms In the wave of global economic integration, the cross-border e-commerce field is undergoing unprecedented changes and competition, and the competition among e-commerce giants around the world is also more intense. In this fierce competition, Chinese e-commerce platforms have demonstrated strong competitiveness and have become a powerful force that cannot be ignored in the global e-commerce market. Recently, Marketplace Pulse released a list of the top five e-commerce platforms in the United States in 2024 based on the expected sales and market influence of each platform. The list shows that Amazon and eBay, as the top players in the cross-border e-commerce industry, are still firmly in the top two seats, but two cross-border e-commerce players from China, Temu and TikTok Shop, have overtaken Walmart and ranked third and fourth respectively, which is indeed "no sound, no sound, but a blockbuster". Now that the mid-year peak season of cross-border e-commerce has arrived, in this highly anticipated but challenging battle for market share in the peak season, Chinese cross-border platforms may be the biggest winners. According to the 2024 year-end peak season forecast report released by software provider Salesforce, Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms will dominate the peak season, largely because the products provided by Chinese cross-border platforms are of good quality and low price. It is reported that more than 60% of Western consumers plan to buy their favorite products on Chinese cross-border platforms. According to preliminary forecasts, during the peak season in 2024, Chinese e-commerce applications are expected to win $160 billion in consumption in the Western market, accounting for about 21% of the peak season sales. It is foreseeable that the development prospects of the global e-commerce industry are bright, and the strong rise of Chinese e-commerce platforms has brought new competition patterns and development opportunities to the global e-commerce industry. We have reason to believe that in the future global retail market, Chinese e-commerce platforms will play a more important role and promote the upgrading and transformation of the global business value chain.