Alisoft to Open E-commerce Cloud Computing Centers

Alibaba Group's software subsidiary Alisoft announced on December 30 that it plans to build several e-commerce "Business Cloud" computing centers, the first of which will be established in Nanjing in early 2009 with initial investment of more than RMB 100 million, reports Sina. The cloud computing centers will work with the Hangzhou data center and provide e-commerce services to domestic users as well as computing, storage and network services.

Alipay Starts Collecting Service Fees In China

Chinese third-party Internet payment platform Alipay has announced that it will start to collect a certain proportion of service charges from uses with large-scale trading and the new policy will be take effect from January 1, 2009.

At the same time, the company promises to continue to provide free services to ordinary users.

According to the report published by Alipay, which is owned by Internet B2B company Alibaba, it will offer a monthly CNY5,000 free trading volume to each user. For those whose actual trading volume exceeds the specified amount, Alipay will charge service fees at a certain proportion. The report adds that users who select and buy products on the company's sister auction website Taobao.com and complete the transaction via Alipay are not included in the new policy, which means they still do not need to pay any service fee. The new policy is only effective on transactions completed within the website of Alipay.

Statistics from Alipay show that the number of users who complete more than CNY5,000 trading on Alipay accounts for less than 0.01% of its total users. Therefore, to collect certain service fees from this special group of people will not affect Alipay's 99.99% ordinary users.

Alipay previously announced that by the end of August 2008, the number of its registered users had hit over 100 million, making it the world's second largest third-party payment platform, which was only second to the U.S.-based Paypal with 180 million users.

Alibaba Announces Board Of Directors Adjustment

Chinese B2B e-commerce giant Alibaba has recently published a report on several adjustments in its board of directors.

The adjustments include Andrew Tsuei, former non-executive director for Alibaba, will be independent non-executive director for the company; Guan Mingsheng will be Alibaba's independent non-executive director and replaces Long Yongtu to be member of the audit committee and the nominating committee of Alibaba; Long will stay in the company as independent non-executive director; and Simon Xie will depart from his position as executive director of Alibaba.

After these adjustments, Alibaba's board of directors is still formed by 13 members, including five independent non-executive directors.

At present, Alibaba's board of directors includes chairman and non-executive director Jack Ma; executive directors David Wei, Maggie Wu, Trudy Dai and Sabrina Peng; non-executive directors Joseph Tsai, Andrew Tsuei, Rose Tsou and Satoshi Okada; and independent non-executive directors Long Yongtu, Niu Gensheng, Walter Kwauk and Guan Mingsheng.

Global Sources appoints Deputy CFO and announces June 2009 retirement for long-time CFO Eddie Heng

David Gillan, corporate finance expert, to assume CFO role

HONG KONG, Nov. 6 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Global Sources has hired David Gillan as Deputy CFO, with a view to Gillan assuming CFO responsibilities upon current CFO Eddie Heng's retirement, which is scheduled to be on June 30, 2009. Heng intends to continue to provide counsel as a consultant.

Global Sources' Chairman and CEO, Merle A. Hinrichs, said: "We are delighted to welcome David to our team. His deep understanding of corporate finance and China tax law is an invaluable asset to the company as we strengthen our leadership role in Asia's B2B trade. We thank Eddie for his 15 years of service and his contribution in helping the company maintain a strong balance sheet while we expanded our products and services across Asia. We wish him the best during his retirement."

From 2003 through 2008, Gillan, 44, was based in Shanghai as China Managing Director and CEO for the Dennis Family Corporation Pty. Ltd., a private Australian real estate investment and development fund. From 2000 to 2003, Gillan was Finance Director, Tax & Treasury and Director of Project Development for the Intercontinental Hotels Group - Asia Pacific. Gillan has also held senior financial positions in various joint ventures in China from 1994-2000, including Finance Director China for Bass Ginsber Beer Company Ltd., a Sino-British JV, and Finance Controller and General Manager for Zumtobel Coffee and Foods Co, a private Sino-Austrian JV.

Gillan holds an MBA in International Management, Marketing and Finance from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada and a BBA in Finance from the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Alibaba.com Releases TrustPass Stats, Taobao GM Rumored To Resign

Alibaba Group subsidiary Alibaba.com Ltd (1688.HK) has recorded average domestic transaction volume of RMB 600,000 per year for enterprises users of its business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce service TrustPass, reports qq.com quoting Alibaba Group B2B vice president Wu Minzhi. Wu added that the size of the company's domestic business may likely surpass that of international business in the future, but for now they are basically the same.

Former Alibaba Group and China Yahoo vice president Jasmine Shen resigned last week, reports BiaNews quoting an unnamed source. Previous rumors suggested that Shen planned to resign because she lost influence after being transferred to Alibaba Group's consumer-focused e-commerce site Taobao.com as search department general manager. A China Yahoo public relations department employee said she was not aware of Shen's resignation. Shen joined China Yahoo as vice president on November 17, 2006.

China's Largest E-commerce Company, Alibaba.com, Selects NICE Systems for its VoIP Contact Centers

Global E-Commerce Leader to Leverage NICE SmartCenter Solutions to Drive Contact Center Business Performance Improvements

RA'ANANA, Israel, December 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NICE Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ: NICE), the global provider of advanced solutions that enable organizations to extract Insight from Interactions to drive performance, today announced that Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.com, the world's leading B2B e-commerce company, placed an initial order for NICE SmartCenter solutions for two of its VoIP contact centers. The NICE solution will provide Alibaba.com with a comprehensive quality management solution for improving customer service agent performance, training effectiveness, and customer satisfaction.

The flagship of the Alibaba Group, Alibaba.com offers business-to-business service that connects millions of buyers and suppliers from around the world, and recently expanded its business to markets in India, Japan, and Korea. The Alibaba Group also includes Taobao - China's largest consumer e-commerce company, Alipay - Safe and secure online payment, Yahoo! Koubei - Online classified listings for local services and search, and Alisoft - Internet-based business management software.

NICE SmartCenter will provide Alibaba.com contact center supervisors with precision quality management to ensure customer satisfaction and foster customer loyalty. It will enable supervisors to proactively evaluate and improve the quality of service provided to customers calling about Alibaba.com's services and for technical support. By targeting key calls as well as correlating them with agent screen activity, supervisors will be able to more accurately identify how agent behaviors are impacting quality of service, and develop programs for performance improvement where needed.

Andy Li, Vice-President of Alibaba.com said, "NICE SmartCenter will provide us the ability to enhance customer satisfaction and drive comprehensive business performance improvements. We are committed to providing outstanding customer service, and believe that with the NICE solution we will be able to better understand and satisfy the expectations and requirements of our customers, while improving operational efficiency.""We are very happy to have been chosen by Alibaba.com, a leading global e-commerce company," said Doron Ben-Sira, President of NICE APAC. "This illustrates our leadership in providing the most advanced set of contact center solutions and demonstrates the key role we play in helping organizations all over the world further enhance their performance."

YeePay VP: Monthly Transaction Volume Exceeds RMB 1B

Beijing-based online payment service provider YeePay currently records monthly transaction volume of RMB 1-10 billion, reports Youth Daily quoting company vice president Yu Chen. YeePay's revenue and profit both increased fivefold in 2007, said the vice president. Monthly transaction volume for Alibaba Group's online payment tool Alipay hit RMB 550 million on October 20.

KITA, Alibaba to Aid Global Marketing of Korean SMEs

The Korea International Trade Association says it will launch a project with the world's largest online business-to-business marketplace, alibaba.com, to support the global marketing of small Korean companies. The two sides will provide a "global B2B export support premium package" to domestic companies, including all services necessary to prepare for overseas shipping and catalogue ordering. The service encompasses a global network comprised of over 36-hundred companies in 240 nations. The trade association will provide the service to two-thousand small Korean firms starting in April.

Alibaba.com Releases TrustPass Stats, Taobao GM Rumored To Resign

Group subsidiary Alibaba.com Ltd (1688.HK) has recorded average domestic transaction volume of RMB 600,000 per year for enterprises users of its business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce service TrustPass, reports qq.com quoting Alibaba Group B2B vice president Wu Minzhi. Wu added that the size of the company's domestic business may likely surpass that of international business in the future, but for now they are basically the same.

Former Alibaba Group and China Yahoo vice president Jasmine Shen resigned last week, reports BiaNews quoting an unnamed source. Previous rumors suggested that Shen planned to resign because she lost influence after being transferred to Alibaba Group's consumer-focused e-commerce site Taobao.com as search department general manager. A China Yahoo public relations department employee said she was not aware of Shen's resignation. Shen joined China Yahoo as vice president on November 17, 2006

Melbourne IT signs deal with Alibaba.com

Melbourne IT has signed a reseller agreement with B2B e-commerce company Alibaba.com. The agreement lets Melbourne IT expand the range of online services it offers to its small and medium business customer base in Australia and New Zealand.

Melbourne IT provides domain names, web sites, email marketing and search engine optimisation. Theo Hnarakis, Melbourne IT CEO, says the Alibaba.com service will add to the online toolkit already offered to small and medium businesses.

“This alliance will allow us to help our customers tap into overseas markets by leveraging the extensive B2B network that Alibaba.com has established in key supplier markets like China and buyer markets like the US.

“In many ways it is like being on display at an international trade show 24/7, with buyers from around the world looking at your goods, without you ever having to leave your office.”

Melbourne IT will be selling Alibaba.com’s TrustPass service, which is a paid membership package.

Alibaba IM Tool Exceeds 100M Registered Users

Alibaba Group's software subsidiary Alisoft has exceeded 100 million registered users of its instant messaging tool "Ali Wang Wang," reports enorth.com.cn citing Alisoft statistics. Ali Wang Wang had 20 million registered users in January 2007.

Fujian Government to Subsidize Alibaba Services

The Economic and Trade Commission of Fujian Province has signed an agreement with Chinese B2B e-commerce firm Alibaba (1688.HK) to cooperate on a project named "Qianwan" (literally "Must Do") designed to promote the use of e-commerce by Fujian enterprises. The project will be launched province-wide on January 1, 2009, and will focus primarily on the following goals: the creation of an e-commerce community run by Alibaba that encompasses the majority of Fujian's small and medium enterprises (SMEs); the development of a comprehensive province-wide B2B e-commerce platform; the promotion of Fujian brand names in 240 countries and regions around the world.

Fujian province has set aside RMB 10 mln in funds to support the project. The funds will be used to support the use of Alibaba's services such as TrustPass and "China Supplier Chukoutong" (unofficial translation: Export Expert). Once the two parties have established the cooperation, enterprises in Fujian will be able to apply to obtain unsecured low-interest loans (in comparison to lending rates for personal loans) from Alibaba's credit network platform.

Yahoo China Vice President Resigns

Shen Jianming, vice president for Alibaba Group and vice president for Yahoo (YHOO) China, told local media that she has resigned her positions and officially departed from Alibaba Group.

Shen says she left Alibaba Group for personal reasons. She says her departure is partly because Yahoo China shifted its focus to Koubei.com after it acquired the website and she was asked to work in Hangzhou to manage Koubei.com. However, she does not want to leave her family in Beijing, so she put forward her resignation a month ago.

Shen adds that she has found a new job and will start work before January 1, 2009. Rumors say Shen may join Tencent and will be in charge of website and public relations, but the news is neither confirmed by Shen nor by Tencent.

Shen joined Alibaba Group in November 2006 and was appointed vice president for Alibaba Group and vice president for Yahoo China. Over the past two years, Shen was in charge of Yahoo China's business expansion in marketing, public relations and email box sectors.

Before joining Alibaba Group, Shen worked in Sina.com for nearly eight years as director for business development, vice general manager for business development and vice president for marketing.

Alibaba Group To Invest RMB 300M In Yahoo Koubei In 2009

Group plans to invest RMB 300 million to develop its daily life information website Yahoo Koubei (koubei.com) in 2009 and will make some adjustments to the site's business and organization, reports Sina quoting a company announcement on December 10.

China Yahoo plans to shrink its business and focus on koubei.com, said the report quoting recently-resigned Alibaba Group and China Yahoo vice president Jasmine Shen. Yahoo Koubei will focus on developing its Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen businesses next year, said the report. China Yahoo merged with Koubei.com on June 1.

Europages partnered EC21

PARIS, Dec 03, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- EUROPAGES have signed a sales co-operation agreement with leading B2B major EC21.com, offering Korean and Chinese SMEs the opportunity to market themselves in European countries.

EUROPAGES is a leading business-to-business search engine in Europe featuring 1.5 million companies worldwide. It has developed a network of representatives in Asia, illustrating its will to help Korean and Chinese companies to take advantage of the tremendous potential of the European Market.

Paolo Giuri, CEO of EUROPAGES, said: "The partnership is great news for companies that want to promote themselves in Europe and worldwide. EC21's strong position on the B2B market and its knowledge of SMEs in Asia will give further exposure to Europages. Over the past few years, traffic from Asian countries has doubled."

"With this agreement, we now have the means to significantly increase our clients' visibility on the world market. We are pleased to work together with EUROPAGES, and strongly believe that this cooperation will further pave the way in delivering best business opportunities to our members", said Mr. Taesung Kim, Vice President of EC21.

Together EUROPAGES and EC21 give advertisers numerous opportunities to generate leads for their business and reach an audience of qualified buyers