Moral of the story- if you don't have local (government, sure, but also populace) support, it doesn't matter how big you are- TaoBao, AliExpress, etc. are China

Moral of the story- if you don't have local (government, sure, but also populace) support, it doesn't matter how big you are- TaoBao, AliExpress, etc. are China-first, locally built platforms that already had a foothold before Amazon showed up. Also, business models- in my experience, Ali, and especially TaoBao are really open to drop-shipping and the like, which means that they don't need quite as many warehouses as Amazon.