Tencent Becomes Tech Service Provider for First Online Canton Fair
The China Foreign Trade Centre (CFTC) confirmed Thursday that China’s tech giant Tencent has become the technical service provider for the 127th China Import and Export Fair, better known as the Canton Fair. The country’s largest trade event is scheduled to be conducted online from mid- to late June due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
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“The 127th Canton Fair is proposed to take place online in lieu of a physical exhibition. This is both a pragmatic response to the COVID-19 pandemic and a major initiative for innovative development,” said Ren Hongbin, the assistant minister of commerce.
The first virtual Canton Fair in the past six decades will create an online international trade platform for products that cover 16 major export categories, such as home appliances, consumer goods, textiles, medical and health care. CFTC has partnered with the China Ministry of Commerce to promote the online displays of 25,000 enterprises participating in the fair.
Tencent will provide technical support, platform R&D and cloud services to the event, promoting docking services for both exhibitors and buyers, as well as an ecosystem built around its products such as WeChat, Tencent Cloud and Tencent Meeting.
The company will also set up a 24-hour livestreaming platform for exhibitors to have face-to-face online negotiations with potential buyers, while promoting their products around the globe.
Held every spring and autumn in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou since 1957, the Canton Fair has become China’s largest comprehensive international trade fair which involves numerous commodities and customers. The 126th autumn session in 2019 received 186,015 participants from 214 countries and regions, with export turnover reaching RMB 207.1 billion ($29.3 billion).
