DHgate and Tencent QD Unveil Plan for APEC WeConnect Women Empowerment Program

BANGKOK, Feb. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- February 21^st, 2017 at the APEC Business Advisory Council meetings in Bangkok, Thailand, Diane Wang, Chair of the APEC Women's Forum and Founder and CEO of DHgate, together with executives from Tencent QD announced that the APEC WeConnect program launched at APEC Lima in November, 2016 has officially entered the implementation phase. APEC WeConnect is a new platform that seeks to empower females throughout the APEC region to become entrepreneurs through leveraging digital (see more below), and will officially launch in 2017.  

Platform Launch in 2017

The APEC WeConnect project will launch a website in 2017 around which DHgate and Tencent QD will build a digital community that will nurture women to embrace entrepreneurship and inspire them to break through the glass ceiling many women face. The website will feature content that seeks to share, educate, and incentivize. Case studies of successful females will inspire, educational/training resources will make learning available to all, and awards and incentives will motivate women to realize their entrepreneurial dreams.

Embracing Digital Tools

APEC WeConnect will also analyze the problems that females face in starting their own businesses, which are different than the problems that males face when attempting the same endeavors. DHgate and Tencent QD are hopeful that the platform will help break traditional gender roles that hinder the success of many women, and help women to embrace the different channels, tools, and increased transparency brought to them by the digital era to succeed, including:

• ecommerce
• social networks
• digital media platforms

"Full female participation in society and in economic competition is the foundation for economic growth. Digitalization provides a better opportunity and many tools for female entrepreneurs to spread their wings and succeed.  This project will help more women to take the first necessary steps to realize their entrepreneurial dreams."

– Diane Wang, Chair of the APEC Women's Forum and Founder and CEO of DHgate

Diane Wang was accompanied by Tencent QD executive Wang Xiangyu who said:

"It's a great pleasure for Tencent to work with DHgate to create and promote this project. As a company that aims to improve the quality of people's lives through the internet, Tencent regards its strategic goal as connecting everyone through our 2 core services which are social media platforms and digital content."

 – Wang Xiangyu, Tencent QD Executive

About DHgate

DHgate.com is the first to market and the biggest B2B transactional cross-border e-commerce marketplace in China, aiming to provide global buyers with quality products at competitive prices. Founded in 2004, DHgate.com has approximately 10 million global buyers from 230 countries and regions, with 1.4 million global sellers offering 40 million products. DHgate.com's business enables buyers to directly access global manufacturers of the world's top brands with rich product selections. DHgate.com is an all-in-one platform with integrated services for international logistics, cross-border payments, internet financing, etc. DHgate.com's US, UK, Spain, and UAE product distribution warehouses allow for 24 hour delivery and convenient product returns & refunds, bringing great convenience to buyers at http://www.dhgate.com

About Tencent QD

Tencent QD is a subsidiary of Tencent. Tencent QD is a SaaS platform for customer service and customer relationship management with instant messaging as its key feature, which aims to help enterprises to improve the conversion rate of their businesses. Tencent QD integrates Tencent's social media resources so enterprises can easily manage customers across multiple social media platforms and allow businesses to better observe and meet the needs of their clients.

SOURCE DHgate.com