(Excerpt from: Zhejiang Daily,  reporter Weng Jie correspondent  Wang Suning,  Zhong Huanhuan) Cross-border e-commerce not only brings huge business opportunities to a single company, but also has a disruptive impact on the entire foreign trade. A few days ago, at the Fifth Global Cross-border E-commerce Summit held in Hangzhou, Fudan University Distinguished Professor Huang Qifan made this judgment:By 2035, 50% of China’s foreign trade will rely on cross-border e-commerce.

　　"In Zhejiang, Guangdong and other pioneering regions, this process may not take 10 years."Chen Qiaoyan, director of Zhejiang E-commerce Promotion Center, told reporters. Under the epidemic, consumers in Western countries have quickly developed online shopping habits. In the second quarter of this year, US e-commerce increased by 44.5% year-on-year. Seeing the opportunities, more and more people in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other places began to devote themselves to cross-border e-commerce exports. Among these cities, who is the fastest growing? Who can become the No. 1 city of cross-border e-commerce in China？

　　To answer this question, we have to start with the development history of cross-border e-commerce in the two cities of Shenzhen and Hangzhou. According to Chen Weijing, deputy director of the Management Office of the Hangzhou Comprehensive Pilot Zone for Cross-border E-commerce,Shenzhen and Hangzhou can be said to be the twin stars of China’s cross-border e-commerceJust like "North Qiaofeng and Nan Murong" in martial arts novels, they have their own strengths in China's cross-border e-commerce, and each affects the development of domestic cross-border e-commerce.

In March 2015, the state set up the first comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce in Hangzhou, taking the lead in the liberalization and facilitation of cross-border trade. Over the years, Hangzhou has innovated to build a top-level design of “six systems and two platforms”, issued three batches of 113 system innovation lists, and implemented the country’s first local cross-border e-commerce promotion regulations. "Today, cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones have been promoted in 105 cities across the country." Chen Weijing said that the entire design and management model of these comprehensive pilot zones almost copied the "Hangzhou experience", just like "the world of martial arts from Shaolin" .

Shenzhen is also the first region for cross-border e-commerce in our country. Due to its proximity to Hong Kong and the convenience of international logistics, many Shenzhen companies started to get involved in cross-border e-commerce as early as around 2011. In 2019, Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce transaction volume has reached 419.7 billion yuan, which has considerable advantages compared with the scale of Hangzhou and even Zhejiang. Although the cross-border e-commerce in Hangzhou and Shenzhen has maintained an average annual growth rate of about 20% in the past two years, due to the gap in the base, Hangzhou is facing the pressure of "the pacemaker is getting farther away".

Last year, Lin Peng, secretary general of the Anji County Cross-border Trade Association, took local cross-border e-commerce companies to participate in the annual cross-border e-commerce conference in Shenzhen. Those shocking scenes are still fresh in Lin Peng's memory. At that time, the Shenzhen companies he met at the annual meeting often had annual sales of hundreds of millions or even billions. This made Anji's leading cross-border e-commerce company, which had annual sales of only 100 million or 200 million yuan, feel a huge gap. Sense of shame and then courage. This year, Anji has taken multiple measures to promote cross-border e-commerce-holding more than 20 investment conferences and training sessions on cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Amazon. In the first 11 months, Anji's cross-border e-commerce turnover increased by 79.5% year-on-year.

　　The strength of Shenzhen's leading enterprises makes it difficult for Hangzhou to compete. According to statistics,there are more than 200 Shenzhen cross-border e-commerce companies with sales of more than 1 billion yuan. Bantian and China South City are the most concentrated cross-border e-commerce companies in Shenzhen. The locals jokingly called the largest of these companies the "Four Kings of South China City" and "Five Tigers in Bantian District." The outstanding ones have annual sales of more than 10 billion yuan.

　　In Hangzhou, Zhejiang Zibuyu E-commerce Co., Ltd. is a star enterprise engaged in cross-border e-commerce export of clothing. The company's sales this year are more than 2 billion yuan. Although this scale is very good among cross-border e-commerce in the country, Bessky, one of the "Five Tigers in Bantian District", has reached this scale as early as 2016. Of course, Hangzhou also has its own characteristics in terms of the cultivation of market entities: Hangzhou cross-border e-commerce B2B platforms represented by Alibaba International Station and China Chemical Network have attracted more than 160,000 Chinese sellers; AliExpress The Hangzhou cross-border e-commerce B2C platform represented by, Jiayun Data, etc., has more than 600 million users worldwide. The superior ecological area of Hangzhou cross-border e-commerce also creates conditions for cultivating more market players.

　　In terms of operational capabilities, Hangzhou and Zhejiang may still be a certain distance away from Shenzhen. Cheng Yan, director of the e-commerce department of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce, said that with the development of cross-border e-commerce, Zhejiang's manufacturing advantages will gradually be released, and it is believed that Hangzhou will have more stamina for development.

　　

In the past, cross-border e-commerce sellers tended to focus on operations rather than production; now, there are more sellers on cross-border e-commerce platforms, and competition is tilted from initial operations to supply chain, brand, and design. Today, whoever can respond quickly based on user feedback can win the market.

However, with the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce, it is not enough to rely solely on the enterprises themselves for the competition between cities. To build the No. 1 city of cross-border e-commerce in Zhejiang, it also needs to strengthen policy innovation and supply.

Of course, on the cross-border e-commerce track, far more than Shenzhen and Hangzhou are competing on the same platform. Many cities have also made great efforts. From the perspective of the province, Ningbo and Taizhou, which have developed manufacturing industries, are catching up and showing a strong momentum. From outside the province, Zhengzhou is also a rising star. In 2019, Henan Province's cross-border e-commerce import and export (including express parcels) was 158.13 billion yuan, an increase of 22.7%.(含快递包裹)1581.3亿元，增长22.7%。

　　Whether it is Hangzhou or Shenzhen, the current first-mover advantage is not enough to make them invincible. Wu Changhong said that as a new thing, cross-border e-commerce is constantly evolving and evolving, with various new models and new gameplay emerging in an endless stream. The advantages of any first-mover city can easily be subverted in the iterative update of the new model.