Simon Huang, President of Ozon Greater China: Chinese Sellers are Flocking to Russia | Exclusive Interview

Editor's note: At the end of last month, 36Kr attended an Ozon global investment promotion launch conference in Xiamen and found the venue packed with people. The booming cross - border business stands in sharp contrast to the domestic economy. In particular, a set of data caught our attention: Although the e - commerce penetration rate in Russia will only reach 23% in 2025, Ozon achieved an average annual compound growth rate of 91% from 2017 to 2025.

Behind these high - growth figures, there seem to be significant business opportunities. But what exactly are these opportunities? How can Chinese sellers seize them in the AI era? What stage is the local e - commerce at? With these questions in mind, 36Kr had a conversation with Simon Huang, President of Ozon Greater China. The conclusion is that there is still a long dividend period in the Russian - speaking region. Chinese e - commerce companies have sufficient brand, supply - chain, and operational advantages when moving there. The following is the main text:

In the past few years, the most crowded areas for Chinese cross - border e - commerce have been Europe and the United States.

Countless cross - border sellers represented by those in Shenzhen's Bantian, Longhua, and Huaqiangbei have built a complete set of mature methodologies around Amazon, independent websites, TikTok Shop, and Temu: product selection, traffic investment, product listing, brand building, overseas warehouses, influencer marketing, etc. It can be said that the Chinese supply chain has almost dominated the global e - commerce market.

However, since 2025, more and more sellers have begun to feel a change: the European and American markets are becoming increasingly difficult.

On the one hand, small - package tariffs, logistics, and platform rules are constantly tightening. On the other hand, the competition has shifted from "incremental competition" to "stock involution." Many sellers have straightforwardly said, "Traffic is getting more expensive, advertising competition is intensifying, and profits are getting thinner." Many sellers have also found that even though the GMV of their stores is still growing, their profits are declining.

As a result, a large number of Chinese sellers have started looking for new markets. This time, they are turning their attention to a region that has long been overlooked: Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

"In the past year, a large number of sellers who used to focus on the European and American markets have switched to the Russian - speaking region and entered the CIS market," Simon Huang, President of Ozon Greater China, told 36Kr.

Actually, for many Chinese sellers, Russia has always been a "familiar yet unfamiliar" market. It is familiar because it is large enough. Russia has a population of 150 million. Together with the five Central Asian countries and Belarus and other CIS countries, the total population reaches 250 million, equivalent to the scale of a regional market like Indonesia.

It is unfamiliar because for a long time, this market has lacked truly mature e - commerce infrastructure. Chinese companies that wanted to enter Russia mostly had to rely on traditional trade: multi - level agency, offline channels, high logistics costs, and inefficient circulation. Many Chinese brands have even ended up as local private labels.

But now, everything is starting to change.

According to data disclosed by Ozon, the scale of the Russian e - commerce market reached 14 trillion rubles in 2025, approximately equivalent to 190 billion US dollars. By 2029, this figure is expected to further increase to 30 trillion rubles, approaching 400 billion US dollars. At the same time, the e - commerce penetration rate in Russia is still only 23%, far lower than that of mature markets such as China and South Korea.

This means that a huge incremental market is just beginning. In this change, Ozon, one of the largest e - commerce platforms in Russia, is becoming the most important gateway for Chinese sellers to enter the CIS market.

A market underestimated for a decade is starting to boom

Looking at the timeline, the development of e - commerce in Russia is clearly at least a decade behind that of China. Ozon was founded in 1998, earlier than Taobao. However, in the first 20 years, it was more like a "small and beautiful" website for books and cultural and creative products. It wasn't until around 2018 that Ozon truly switched to the platform model and experienced explosive growth.

"2018 was a crucial dividing line," Simon recalled to 36Kr. "At that time, the successful path of global e - commerce platforms was already very clear. Platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, JD.com, as well as Shopee and Coupang (a South Korean e - commerce platform), had all proven that the e - commerce platform is a business model with huge scale effects and network effects."

After the transformation, Ozon started to make crazy investments. In the past five years, Ozon has built more than 5 million square meters of warehousing centers in Russia, has more than 20,000 full - time drivers and transport vehicles, and has established a network of more than 84,000 self - pick - up points, covering more than 90% of users.

Behind these figures is actually a war about "infrastructure." The biggest problem with Russian e - commerce has never been consumer purchasing power, but fulfillment capabilities. This country spanning Eurasia has an extremely complex geographical structure: vast territory with a sparse population, long winters, and high logistics costs. Outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg, a large number of people are distributed in small and medium - sized cities and rural areas.

Traditional logistics companies are not willing to invest such huge infrastructure costs. But e - commerce platforms have to. "Only when the logistics infrastructure is in place can the e - commerce business model be established," Simon told 36Kr. So, Ozon did something very "Chinese - style": it integrated logistics, self - pick - up points, subsidies, payment, and digital capabilities into platform infrastructure.

To some extent, it is very similar to Chinese e - commerce platforms a decade ago. For example, the self - pick - up point network is a model with strong Russian characteristics.

Different from the large - scale "home delivery" in China, Russian consumers are more accustomed to picking up goods at nearby self - pick - up points. Ozon initially tried to build self - pick - up points on its own but found the progress too slow. Subsequently, it switched to a franchise model: anyone can transform their space into an Ozon self - pick - up point, and the platform shares the revenue based on GMV.

As a result, the number of self - pick - up points quickly expanded to 84,000. Consumers can try on, test, return goods, and even arrange secondary delivery here. "This is a strong network effect," Simon said. "The larger the logistics scale, the lower the cost and the faster the delivery; the more users there are, the more willing merchants are to enter; the more merchants there are, the more choices consumers have."

This logic is extremely similar to the flywheel of Chinese e - commerce in the past decade. After the infrastructure became mature, Chinese sellers finally began to truly enter this market.

Chinese sellers are migrating

In the past few years, Chinese cross - border sellers have experienced a round of extremely cruel global competition.

With the rising traffic costs, changing tariff policies, and tightening platform rules in the European and American markets, many sellers have started to re - evaluate their global layouts. The Russian - speaking market has become a new destination. "The CIS market is still an incremental market, and there is no need to compete for the existing market share," Simon told 36Kr.

Compared with the European and American markets, the most significant feature of Russia and the CIS is that e - commerce is still in a stage of rapid growth. The consumer demand here has not been fully met for a long time, and the Chinese supply chain happens to have a strong cost - performance advantage, especially in the sinking market.

Simon observed that more than 100 million people in Russia live in small and medium - sized cities and rural areas, and these consumers are extremely price - sensitive. Chinese industrial - belt sellers, whether they are from Fujian's footwear and clothing industry, Yiwu's small commodity industry, or the Pearl River Delta's consumer electronics industry, can quickly meet these demands with extremely high cost - performance.

As a result, a large number of Chinese sellers have started to enter. As of now, there are more than 750,000 active sellers on the Ozon platform, and Chinese sellers account for more than 20%. Among these sellers, two completely different paths have gradually emerged.

The first type is the typical industrial - belt product - listing sellers. They have a large number of SKUs and rely on a mature ERP system for refined operations, covering the sinking market in Russia with extreme cost - performance.

The second type is an increasing number of Chinese enterprises starting to build brands. This is also the type of sellers that Simon values the most. "In the future, AI will level out many operational advantages," he said. "What can truly form long - term barriers are brands, IPs, technology, aesthetics, and user trust."

In his view, the biggest advantages of Chinese sellers in the past were information asymmetry and operational efficiency. However, after the emergence of AI, these advantages are being rapidly weakened. AI can perform product selection analysis, local translation, content generation, advertising optimization, customer service operations, and store management.

Moreover, AI can operate 24/7 without interruption. "In the past, the biggest advantage of large sellers was the ability to hire a large number of operators. But now, with the emergence of AI employees, this advantage is gone," Simon said. So, the entire industry has returned to the most fundamental question:

What is your core asset?

If everyone can find a supply chain and everyone can use AI for operations, then the only ones that can truly stay in the market in the end are brands. This is why more and more Chinese sellers are starting to make long - term investments in the Russian market. Some have started to register local trademarks;

some have started to conduct local marketing; some have started to cooperate with Russian KOLs; and some have even started to open pop - up stores locally.

In Simon's view, this change essentially represents a shift from "short - term arbitrage" to "long - term operation" for Chinese cross - border sellers. "Short - termism is becoming increasingly difficult," he said.

In the AI era, cross - border e - commerce is entering the "One Person Company" era

In this interview, Simon repeatedly mentioned a term: OPC (One Person Company). He believes that AI is bringing cross - border e - commerce into a brand - new stage. In the past, a cross - border team might need operators, graphic designers, copywriters, small - language customer service staff, data analysts, and advertising specialists. But now, AI is gradually replacing these positions.

"In the future, many enterprises will not need to hire a large number of employees. What they need are digital employees," Simon said. In his view, the changes brought about by AI are not just about efficiency improvement but a reconstruction of the entire competitive logic.

First, AI eliminates information asymmetry. In the past, the greatest value of an experienced operator was knowing the platform rules, how to select products, and how to place advertisements. But now, AI can analyze global public data at low cost and quickly identify trends and demands.

Second, AI also eliminates the advantage of organizational scale. In the past, large sellers could build an efficiency barrier by hiring a large number of people. But after the emergence of AI, a small team or even a single person can have the operational capabilities of a large company in the past. This means that the entrepreneurial threshold for cross - border e - commerce is being rapidly lowered.

"In the future, more and more operators will start their own businesses," Simon said. "As long as they are equipped with an AI tool, they can get started." However, at the same time, AI also makes the entire industry more brutal. Because when everyone can operate, what truly sets the difference is no longer operations. It is products, brands, IPs, user trust, content aesthetics, and consumer insights.

This is why Simon always emphasizes "brand building" and "compliance." In his view, the most core assets in future cross - border e - commerce are things that cannot be quickly replicated by AI. Especially patents, trademarks, technology, brand awareness, and user relationships. These are the real long - term barriers.

To some extent, this also means that Chinese cross - border e - commerce is ending the "wild growth" stage. The era of relying on information asymmetry, traffic arbitrage, and product - listing logic is gradually passing. A new stage is emerging: platforms are placing more emphasis on infrastructure; sellers are focusing more on brands; AI is emphasizing more on efficiency; and competition is returning more to long - termism.

For Ozon, it hopes to be the provider of infrastructure in this change. For Chinese sellers, Russia and the CIS are like a new growth continent. Against the background of the re - combination of AI, logistics infrastructure, and the global supply chain, this market that has long been overlooked is being rediscovered.