New app lets Chinese living abroad celebrate authentic Spring Festival

Chinese New Year

Weee!

With the Spring Festival in full swing, millions of Chinese around the world are cooking up a storm. However for the Chinese living overseas, it’s sometimes a little hard to get authentic ingredients.

That’s where a social shopping network called Weee! is coming to the rescue.

CGTN’s Mark Niu reports.

Weee! Is headquartered in Fremont, California, where buyers are testing out new products every day for what they call Marketplace 2.0

“The traditional way of e-commerce is you know what you want and you go to website and search for it, then you get the product. That’s the traditional way. But the new way, the social way of shopping is going to a shopping group, where people are just like you, same background and similar tastes and you get inspired by those people,” Larry Liu, co-founder and CEO of Weee! said.

Weee! shoppers are also venturing outside of food, buying far more expensive products like pianos and even a recent group order of more than 20 Honda Odyssey minivans.

“This new way of shopping brings the most relevant products to the communities. That’s the biggest advantage, but I would also say, because the group buy behavior, usually the volume is very high, so the negotiation, the bargaining power of the groups would also bring the price down,” said Liu.

Weee! is first targeting the Chinese community in the U.S. and currently doing more than $4 million in transactions per month.


Xiang Li discusses Chinese New Year

2017 is the Chinese year of the rooster, a favorite among many. For further discussion, CGTN’s Susan Roberts spoke to Xiang Li, professor of the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management at Temple University.