While TikTok’s fate is in limbo, the sharks circle round: Surveys show strong support for Reels if the app is banned, while China says it doesn’t support a forced sale.

In China, ecommerce channel ad spending represents over 38% of total digital ad spending, and ecommerce search spending accounts for 64.0% of total search. Could the US figures reach similar heights?

The rise of shopping apps selling ultralow-cost goods from China is drawing more value-driven US consumers. But are their strategies sustainable over the long term?

For example, China-based logistics companies leased 5.6 million square feet of warehouse space through Q3—roughly three times the space they leased in the region a year earlier, per JLL. Why now?

Consumer confidence in mainland China is back down to record lows last seen during the pandemic, LVMH CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony noted—a sentiment echoed by both Kering and Zegna, the latter of which noted a worsening in Chinese consumer sentiment throughout the summer months.

The big picture: Resistance to Temu’s worldwide expansion is spreading due to concerns about the retailer’s ability to undercut local businesses with ultra-cheap Chinese goods, as well as geopolitical tensions between China and foreign governments.

Uncertainty surrounding tariffs is also contributing to inconsistent results from China. Donald Trump has proposed tariffs as high as 20% on goods from China, which could cause Temu and Shein—two of Meta and Google’s top ad spenders—to significantly reduce their US ad budgets.

Click here to view our full forecasts for US B2B digital ad spending and China B2B digital ad spending. Outside of the US and China, the UK is the largest B2B digital advertising market. In the major markets of Western Europe, a relatively higher share of digital ad spending comes from B2B compared with the rest of the world.

Global comparable sales fell 7% year over year (YoY), twice as much as analysts expected, due to weakness in both the US and China. US comparable transactions fell 10% YoY, although the decline was partially offset by a 4% increase in average ticket; China comparable sales fell 14% YoY, due to an 8% decline in average ticket and a 6% fall in transactions.

Shein could send more of its low-cost goods to US warehouses from China to decrease the distance items need to travel once a customer hits the buy button. Amazon could deprioritize its plan to fight back against companies like Temu—which involves featuring cheap items from Chinese sellers on a dedicated section of its homepage.

But broadly speaking, demand continues to be patchy, especially as more Chinese consumers prioritize spending on services like travel and dining out over physical goods such as apparel and alcohol.

Trump said he will impose a 10% or 20% tariff on all imports across the board, along with an additional tariff of between 60% and 100% for products imported from China. And this week he said that he would set tariffs between 25% and 100% on goods imported from Mexico—the US’ largest trading partner—if it didn’t close the border.

ByteDance operates the popular Doubau genAI chatbot in China. It’s the equivalent of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which isn’t available in the region. GenAI security in focus: Since ByteDance’s AI chatbots are exclusive to China, it will be difficult to determine the extent of the intern’s sabotage.

Apple committed to launching Apple Intelligence in Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish in 2025, but China and the EU will not get AI features, due to pending regulatory approvals. Lack of AI features in China could become a problem for growth in that region, especially since Apple fell out of the list of top five smartphone vendors in China in Q2, per Canalys.

The big picture: Shein’s latest revenues reinforce the Chinese retailer’s attractiveness as an investment opportunity as it prepares for its long-awaited IPO—but that IPO is far from certain as regulators in the UK and China drag their heels.

Russia’s recent viral disinformation on X exposes platforms’ vulnerability, while Iran and China reportedly continue to fuel US political divides. Our take:  Social media platforms play a critical role in curbing election misinformation but face limits in their abilities to do so.

Why it matters: The decision could affect millions of US TikTok users and reshape US-China tech relations. The platform’s influence on younger voters makes it a valuable political tool. ByteDance’s resistance to selling its algorithm presents ongoing national security concerns. The issue highlights the complex intersection of technology, national security, and political interests.

Although the channel is unlikely to reach the scale of China—where we expect it to account for 25.4% of all ecommerce sales this year—it is beginning to emerge as a viable tool retailers can use to appeal to younger consumers.