Fernando SOARES DE JESUS, UFSC, Brazil
Edson DE MORAIS MACHADO, UEM, Brazil
In this paper, we aim to understand the growth of e-commerce in the world in the 21st century and its relation with the dispute between the U.S. and China for the leadership of the world economy. For this, we apply the comprehension about long cycles, created for Nikolai Kondratiev and organized for Schumpeter (1939). For this author, the world economy is constituted for an expansion phase (phase “a”), when there are applications of innovations, and for a recessive phase (phase “b”), characterized for the exhaustion of these innovations and the development of new ones.
The analysis of the economic overview in centuries 20th and 21st shows us that the leadership of the U.S. was threatened by emerging economies in Asia, especially by Japan, the Four Asian Tigers (Korea Rep., Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong), and later by China. The measures in the Ronald Reagan government in the economic and political fields interrupted this economic growth. But the situation was different in China since the Deng Xiaoping reforms, when this country created deterrent ways, like the control of U.S. public debt bonds.
When we focus on e-commerce, it’s possible to see the importance of Chinese and U.S. corporations. Among the ten firsts, three are Americans and the other four are from China. Amazon Inc. is the main company in the world, with a high level of internationalization. Its website has 21 versions around the world, in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and the Americas. The company has fulfillment centers in 22 countries, including Brazil, Mexico, India, and Egypt. Alibaba, the main Chinese company, on the other hand, focuses its operation in the domestic market, the biggest in the world. Between 2020 and 2021, more than 90% of its profit came from Chinese users. The power of Alibaba Group in its national market is illustrated by the difficulty that Amazon and e-Bay, another U.S. company, had when trying to enter China.
Mots clés : E-commerce|China|United States|Amazon|Alibaba
A103916FS