SHANGHAI -- Faced with the prospect of slowing growth at home, Chinese online retailers are turning their attention overseas, as they look to leverage their know-how in artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and other automation technologies to grow their businesses.
Although just two companies, Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com, control more than 80% of China's e-commerce market, and sales are still brisk -- growing 25.6% on the year in 2016 and 28% in 2017, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics -- there are signs of a slowdown. Overall consumer spending in China is rising at a more modest annual pace of around 10% or so and is unlikely to rise much.
