For a long time, Chinese technology companies have been marked by the mark of copycats.
But now, from Facebook to Amazon, U.S. tech giants are increasingly imitating Chinese innovations to bolster their dominance, becoming an integral part of people's daily lives, like Tencent and Alibaba in China.
On July 19, foreign media fastcompany published an article saying that Amazon's just-concluded prime day shopping holiday is just a copycat version of Alibaba's double 11 and will never reach the height of the latter in China.
Amazon has recently held hands with celebrities from all walks of life, including Lady Gaga and Kobe Bryant, to create momentum for prime day. It's clear that it wants Prime Day to be the next great American holiday.
Prime day is already comparable to holiday shopping festivals such as Black Friday and Online Shopping Monday. But Amazon's goal is much more than that, and what it really wants to target is Singles' Day in the Eastern Hemisphere. On Double 11 last year, Alibaba's e-commerce platform sold more than $30 billion in 24 hours, while prime day sales in 2018 were only $4 billion.
When American companies imitate the Chinese model, they often fail to grasp the essence of what really makes those Chinese innovations successful. At this point, there is perhaps no better example than Amazon's version of The Singles' Day.
Jane Lynch hosts the 2019 Amazon Prime Day concert
While Amazon can replicate Alibaba's success in flash-selling, entertainment, music, celebrity collaborations, and all the publicity money can buy, primeday will never reach the heights of Double 11 in China in the United States because of fundamental differences between the two companies and their respective platforms.
Amazon, and even prime day, revolves around the Amazon brand. Alibaba, by contrast, has singles' day revolving around all the brands and sellers on its platform that people really love.
Alibaba's Singles' Day will display its "must-buy product recommendation list" in advance, which includes international brands from all over the world.
But during the Amazon Prime Day Concert, amazon showcased all of its own brands.
One is to emphasize other people's, and the other is to emphasize Amazon's own, and that's the pattern.
Today, Amazon is just imitating Alibaba's script in depth, but it can't grasp the spiritual connotation that created Alibaba's Double Eleven "spectacle".
At the same time, Alibaba will push this year's Double 11 countdown party to the world.