Chinese e-commerce platforms on the offensive: Are we heading for a global e-tail revolution?[La ofensiva de las plataformas chinas de venta en línea ¿Hacia una revolución del comercio electrónico mundial?]

China's spectacular economic ascent, in the space of just a few decades, and the geopolitical concerns raised by its relations with Taiwan and the United States, regularly make the headlines. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg, and below the surface lurk other economic breakthroughs that could ultimately tip the balance of global power Beijing-ward. This is particularly the case in the e-commerce sector, where the Chinese have built a very specific economic model, markedly different from the commercial strategies employed by Western countries, but which today enables them to control the entire value chain for the products they sell. Might China, long confined to being the world's workshop, be on its way to controlling all the cogs of global e-commerce machine, from manufacture through to distribution, and supplanting the American giants of the sector (such as Amazon) in Asia, Europe, and even the US?In this article, Henri Isaac shows how China has gradually gained a foothold in the e-commerce sector, developing platforms it has patiently tried and tested on its own territory before setting out to conquer other markets abroad. He describes the various actors who occupy this commercial field and the largely AI-backed business models and strategies they have developed, together with the reactions of the American and European players to the offensive they have mounted. A reaction that may come too late to turn the situation around . . .