Alibaba.com Opens Taiwan Office

TAIPEI, Taiwan, July 24, 2008 /Xinhua-PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Alibaba.com today opened its fourth functional office outside mainland China. The new Taipei office will be able to better serve its 40,000 local members and enable more small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan to grow their business through e-commerce. Alibaba.com's three websites -- for global trade, domestic trade in mainland China and trade with Japan -- collectively form a business community of close to 30 million registered users from over 240 countries and regions.

Taiwan is a priority market for Alibaba.com and the company is committed to bringing global trade opportunities to Taiwan SMEs by helping them reach millions of buyers and sellers around the world. Alibaba.com is the only business-to-business e-commerce company that connects its Taiwan members with potential trading partners in mainland China, emerging markets like India and developed markets like Japan, Europe and the US on one single platform.

In 2007, there were over 1.2 million SMEs in Taiwan, accounting for around 98% of all enterprises(1) and more than 220,000 of them are engaged in export related businesses(2). With the saturation and slowing of Taiwan's domestic market, it has become more crucial for local SMEs to engage in international trade to stay competitive. However, official statistics estimate that SMEs contribute only around 18% of Taiwan's total export sales. This compares to around 40% of exports contributed by SMEs in South Korea and India, and over 60% by SMEs in mainland China.

"The launch of our Taipei office signifies our strong commitment to invest more resources to develop the Taiwan market and help local SMEs with global trade," said David Wei, Chief Executive Officer, Alibaba.com. "Alibaba.com can provide Taiwan's 220,000 export orientated SMEs with the right tools to connect with a huge pool of active international buyers and increase their competitiveness. In order to enhance our reach in Taiwan, we are also open to local partnerships in Taiwan in the future."

Steve Kang, Senior Business Manager, Alibaba.com Taiwan, commented, "In recent years, fierce competition and a flat domestic economy have cut into the profits of Taiwan businesses and traditional cost saving measures are no longer enough. SMEs in Taiwan need to increase their margins by finding new customers overseas and Alibaba.com can help them tap into the global marketplace."

Alibaba.com recently launched its Gold Supplier membership package in Taiwan. This paid service enables suppliers to gain more exposure to buyers on Alibaba.com's international marketplace by providing them with a premium storefront, priority placement in search results and high quality customer service. The Taipei office will provide local customer service, marketing and sales support, as well as conducting offline education and training for its Taiwan customers. Currently, Alibaba.com has about 2,000 paying members in Taiwan.

(1) According to the 2007 White Paper on SMEs published by the Ministry

of Economic Affairs of Taiwan

(2) According to the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA)

Alibaba & Softbank partner to develop clothing online market

Alibaba, a widely reputed and well known Chinese business-to-business (B2B) company operating through online media, has formed a joint venture with Softbank of Japan to develop e-commerce market in the country.

A branch of Alibaba was already setup in Japan last November but it was only this year that a joint venture with Sofbank could materialize.

While Alibaba would make an initial investment of US $20 million and hold 35 percent stake in the joint-venture, Softbank would claim a 65 percent share.

Garment enterprises in the country are looking forward to this joint venture as a unique advantage in developing e-commerce. Most of them believe that the entry of Alibaba.com into Japanese market would bring about major changes in the existing apparel-e-commerce business.

The new company will take over operations of the existing Japanese-language website of Alibaba.com linking all the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Japan with buyers and suppliers around the world.

As such, Alibaba.com Japan will aim at catering to Japanese business enterprises with a complete database of suppliers available online from China and around the world. Besides, this joint venture will also help Alibaba.com, Japan to localize its contents and upgrade its services to improve the user experience for Japanese SMEs.

Expert analysis show that Japan has more than 4 million SMEs which together account for 25 percent of the country’s export value and about 63 percent of its import value. Moreover, since 2006, China has replaced US to become the largest trading partner of Japan and with this recent endeavor taken by Alibaba and Softbank, not only will bilateral trade get enhanced further, it will also open up new trade channels worldwide.

Alisoft Will Develop China Software Market With 20 VC Companies

Alisoft, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, reportedly plans to cooperate with 20 venture capital companies to invest USD100 million to China's software market and to create 30 listed companies in three years.

Alibaba Group has made a three-year plan for Alisoft's entry into the online software service market and the cooperation with VC investment is a core part of the plan. Alibaba and the 20 VC companies will invest USD100 million to offer a fast channel to independent software vendors for green financing. Of the USD100 million, CNY100 million will be contributed by Alisoft.

In January 2008, Alisoft cooperated with Microsoft and Cisco to launch the first "software interconnection" platform in Asia. About 100 independent software vendors, software dealers and software service providers signed contracts with the platform. According to the estimation of Alisoft, the number of the independent software vendors on the platform will reach 3,000 and the company hopes to help 30 of them to get listed within three years.

Alibaba Group invests 2 bln yuan in online auction unit Taobao.com

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China's leading e-commerce company Alibaba Group, the parent of Hong Kong-listed Alibaba.com, has invested 2 bln yuan in online C2C auction unit Taobao.com.

In a statement on the group's web site, Ma Yun, CEO of Alibaba Group, said that the 2 bln yuan will help Taobao.com build a mature online C2C business chain.

"We will use up the entire 2 bln yuan within five years and we expect trading volume will surpass Ebay.com and Amazon.com in five years." Ma said.

According to the statement, Taobao.com has registered customers of 67 mln, and the site sees 10 mln clicks everyday.

COO Of Star Group Joins Alibaba

Alibaba Group has announced that Zhang Wei, the former COO of Star Group China, formally joined Alibaba Group.

According to Cai Chongxin, CFO of Alibaba, Zhang Wei will be senior vice president and in charge of the strategic investment department of the group. Her main responsibilities will be to help Alibaba and its subsidiaries evaluate trends of new businesses through cooperation, investment and acquisition, and to grasp new strategic opportunities in the Internet industry.

As the former COO of Star Group China, Zhang Wei was in charge of Star's overall business in China, including program making, marketing and the development of new media and businesses. Before that, she has been general manager of GE's CNBC in the China area and worked in several other subsidiaries of GE.

The former vice president for strategic investment of Alibaba is Tian Jian, who left the group in February 2007.

China's Lenovo ties up with Alibaba, Intel on PC products for SMEs

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China's top PC manufacturer Lenovo Group said it has partnered with Intel Corp and Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba.com to provide PCs for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In a statement on the company's web site, Lenovo said the tieup with Intel and Alibaba will further extend Lenovo's business line and expand its SME offerings.

According to the statement, Alibaba will embed its new E-commerce platform into the PCs, while Intel will provide support on Internet security and services based on its chip platform. The first batch of SME PCs produced by Lenovo will be released in September.

Giant Interactive joins hands with Alipay to improve online game payment system

BEIJING, Jul 01, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- GA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Giant Interactive Group Inc. (GA.NYSE) will soon start cooperation with leading third-party online payment platform www.alipay.com to improve the game company's online payment system, reported tech.sina.com.cn, quoting source with alipay.com.

The partnership with alipay.com will provide game players with more flexible ways to make payment for playing games of Giant Interactive.

Alipay.com is a subsidiary of China's leading B2B operator Alibaba Group.