Retailing on social media platforms

Zhong Huayin, a five-year-old boy's mother and a widow, posts new products on her WeChat account with her partly disabled hand in Jiaxing city, Zhejiang province, on April 13, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

Wu Zhaoguo, the chairman of Sibu Group, connecting 1.3 million distributors, brick-and-mortar stores, along with business incubators, said he was "sorry to everyone attending the China Internet Conference."

"I guess you must have been bothered by people who sold products on WeChat over the last two years, and I was the one that behind those ‘micro retailers'," Wu said.

"Social commerce is not about products without production date, certification or manufacturer, nor pyramid scheme."

"However, illegal merchants took advantage of this form and made our company which paid 200 million yuan in tax last year under great pressure."

"Over the past three years, I have visited the Ministry of Commerce and State Administration for Industry Commerce to tell officials of how the social commerce model allows those, who have no money to run a business on e-commerce platforms and no money to rent a shop, to start up their own business."