That\u2019s the joke at the center of this skit<\/a> from Papi Jiang Papi\u9171<\/a>, a skit comedian well known in China. But for her fans, the frustration is all too familiar.<\/p>\n\n \u201cDelete the orange app and you\u2019ll be fine!\u201d she yells in the skit. For any shopper familiar with China\u2019s e-commerce platforms, that\u2019s Taobao, a major shopping app owned by Alibaba.<\/p>\n\n \u201cThe red app has shopping festivals, too!\u201d her friend replies, a reference to Pinduoduo, which is owned by the same company as Temu<\/a>, a platform that has recently gained quick popularity in the US and UK for its super cheap products, where you can \u201cshop like a billionaire\u201d.<\/p>\n\n The horror-themed skit tells a real life story that frustrates many young people in China: the salesmanship of consumerist shopping holidays awaits them every time they open their phones, whether they have the money or not. Pop ups for new sales haunt them. Tempting, but ultimately empty, promises of cheap purchases follow them wherever they go.<\/p>\n\n It\u2019s difficult to escape, in part, because these sales are pushed on the platforms managed by what in China are called platform companies<\/em>. Alibaba, Pinduoduo, and Tencent are all platform companies, because they manage huge platforms. And their reach is inescapable. <\/p>\n\n At Greenpeace East Asia, Beijing we strategically push platform companies to apply this leverage for good, not evil. Over the years, we have campaigned on the climate, biodiversity, and waste impacts of consumerism for years: as early as 2016, we called out the risks of consumerism<\/a>; in 2017, we calculated CO2 emissions from clothing sales, which we found produced 258,000 tons in a year<\/a> \u2013 equivalent to the CO2 absorbed by 2.58 million trees. And by 2019, we were tackling packaging waste<\/a> and how unnecessary over-packaging has become a frequent frustration for people buying goods online in China. <\/p>\n\n Over that time, we\u2019ve seen how people around China have started to sour to the salesmanship that barks at them each year as November begins. These platform companies have to move beyond the bottom line and think about their responsibilities to both the consumer and the environment. So in 2021, we published our first e-commerce platform ranking<\/a>, evaluating how companies pledge and manage their environmental commitments. <\/p>\n\nEscaping from the platform<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
![\"Shopping](\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-international-stateless\/2023\/11\/c8f458ad-gp0str8rx-1024x684.jpg\" "\\"Shopping")