Alibaba Begins Campus Recruitment

B2B e-commerce firm Alibaba (1688.HK) announced that it would begin its annual campus recruitment program, under which it expects to recruit more than 3000 new employees from 59 schools nationwide by next July.

Positions covered by the latest recruitment program include website operations, technology, and sales department positions. More than 360 of the positions are in the company's technical development center, and new graduates will also be recruited for phone sales.

Alibaba's subsidiary companies also announced their plans for Q4 recruitment. Taobao will recruit nearly 300 people; Alipay, nearly 100; Yahoo Koubei, 71; and Alisoft, 20.

Milestone as Alibaba Facilitates Online Payments in China

Alibaba said its Alipay unit is now the second largest online payment service in the world (behind eBay's PayPal), and exceeded 100 million registered users last month. By partnering with domestic PRC banks to provide an escrow service for payments, Alipay enables individuals and businesses in China to execute payments online in a secure manner, reducing the settlement risks faced by Alipay's customers in their ecommerce transactions. At the end of August 2008, Alipay was facilitating 2 million transactions each day and had a daily payment volume of RMB450 million.

Alipay is the designated online payment service on Taobao's consumer ecommerce marketplace, which has 80 million registered users. Alipay has also become an accepted payment method for an increasing number of online retail websites and service providers outside the Taobao ecosystem. Large corporations such as Giant, Shenzhen Airlines, Joyo.com (part of Amazon.com) and Dell use Alipay as their preferred online payment method in China. Some Chinese government departments and public utilities have also adopted Alipay to enable people to pay for everyday expenses, ranging from medical insurance in Guangdong province to telephone bills in Jiangsu province.

In a press statement, the company said, "Thanks to its escrow-based system and broad accessibility, Alipay has become an important supplement to mainstream payment methods in China, a country where credit cards are not widely used."

Alibaba Opens South China Regional Headquarters

Alibaba.com Ltd. (SEHK: 1688) has put its South China regional headquarters in Guangzhou into operation, announced the Chinese business-to-business (B2B) giant on September 18, 2008

With a total investment of USD 50 million, the newly-launched headquarters will oversee and coordinate the company's branches and operations in Southern Chinese provinces like Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan, according to a memorandum of understanding reached between Alibaba and the Guangzhou office.

In addition, it will also serve as the data center, calling center and customer service center for Alibaba in South China as well as South East Asia, said David Wei, chief executive officer for the Hangzhou-based company.

As Alibaba's first regional headquarters out of Hangzhou, the new office is expected to help the company and small- and medium-sized corporate companies ride out the trough in the global economy downturn, according to Mr. Wei, adding that e-commerce will help small- and medium-sized companies lure more customers and expand businesses.

Baidu Claims Alibaba Spread Rumors, Threatens Lawsuit

A spokesman from Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) claimed on Tuesday that Alibaba Group published posts on September 14 with misleading titles about Baidu's "PR protection agreement" with food product manufacturer Sanlu on the websites of consumer-focused e-commerce site Taobao.com and business-to-business e-commerce company Alibaba.com Ltd. (1688.HK), reports Sohu. The reports said Sanlu milk powder planned to sign a RMB 3 million advertising agreement with Baidu if Baidu would remove Sanlu's negative search results. Baidu said it retains the right to sue Alibaba Group for defamation, the report said. Baidu also announced on its online forum channel Baidu Post Bar on September 13 that it refused to sign Sanlu's proposed PR protection agreement.

Alibaba Group welcomed the Baidu lawsuit and said that revealing truth to the public is its responsibility, reports Sina. Alibaba deleted the reports on Tuesday night from the Taobao.com and Alibaba.com Ltd. homepages, reports ChinaByte.

Taobao.com VP Resigns In China

Taobao.com has confirmed that its vice president Huang Ruo, who was in charge of the B2C sector of the Internet auction and e-commerce company, will resign at the end of September 2008.

Huang has been the first high-level manager that will leave the company since the merger of Taobao.com and Alimama.com. On September 4, 2008, Alibaba Group announced plans to merge Taobao.com and Alimama.com, its auction and advertising subsidiaries, to achieve a greater synergy. Former president of Taobao.com Lu Zhaoxi will be president of the new Taobao company and former general manager of Alimama.com Wu Yongming will be vice president of the new company.

According to a report in Beijing Business Today, after the merger the new company will make a series of adjustments and the first step is to implement redundancies and reassignments, including cutting 300 jobs and reassigning 200 staff. However, Lu Weixing, spokesperson of Taobao.com, says it is only a rumor.

Huang says because of personal reasons, he will resign from Taobao.com at the end of September 2008, but he will still stay in the retail industry in the future.

Having worked in many large retail companies, including Lotus, Metro, and Beijing Hualian, Huang joined Taobao.com in June 2007.

Taobao Blocks Baidu, Google, Yahoo Search Engines In China

Chinese online auction and e-commerce website Taobao.com has recently announced its latest consumer protection plan, which includes blocking the search engines of Baidu, Google and Yahoo.

According to local media, Taobao.com completely blocked the search engine of Baidu and it also partly blocks that of Google and Yahoo. Taobao.com says that the blocks of search engines aim to eliminate fraud caused by ill-intentioned merchants. Through different blocking degrees over different search engines, it can prevent consumers from being cheated by illegal merchants who gain consumers trust by pay per click and search optimization techniques.

Statistics offered by Taobao.com show that at present, over 80% of consumers complaints are caused by a small number of unscrupulous businesses. One of the main means of these frauds is to optimize the general search results pages through technical and commercial methods, so as to gain higher rankings and attract consumers to click their links and pages. Therefore, blocking some search engines can protect consumers from being deceived.

Apart from blocking search engines, the consumer protection plan for Taobao.com also includes other measures such as a 30-day warranty for digital and appliances products, assurance for antique and jewelry products, certificate check for food products, and appreciation for luxury goods.

Alibaba merges Taobao and Alimama

BEIJING - Alibaba Group has merged two of its fastest-growing divisions, digital advertising exchange service Alimama and consumer-based auction platform Taobao.com.

In a statement, group chairman Jack Ma (pictured) said consolidating the platforms' operations will better attract sellers and provide consumers with more options, further advancing the Alibaba name brand.

The move comes after Alibaba posted stellar second-quarter earnings, which includes a 159 percent rise in net profit.

Five-year-old Taobao claims that RMB 300 million (US$43.8) is traded on its site daily and from 80 million registered accounts, up from 72 million in June. Meanwhile, Alimama, which launched, claims 3 billion total page views and works with 400,000 small- and medium-sized websites. However, media buyers have argued that Alimama has yet to have a significant impact on the Chinese ad networks operated by Google and Baidu.

MadeInChina.com closed branch company

Some also say that now cost-cutting, closed over the winter may be the most practical method of survival, because the future situation may be more severe. Alibaba CEO Wei Zhe said last week that the current operating environment so that customers have some difficulties, this situation may last until next year.

Branch set up four months on the dissolution

B2B domestic trade as the three major service providers, one of the MadeInChina.com Huicong network, announced in August last year a high profile on-line, a major push into the foreign trade market, but its branch in Guangzhou alone the establishment of more than four months after it announced the dissolution in the near future.

An interview with reporters following the company’s CEO Chung Min Lee, he said, the company operation more than six months ago, has not been performance, cash flow well, therefore decided to dissolve the Guangzhou Branch, staff wages and compensation, he said, would like to approach the end of the month Before let everyone Nadao Qian. The staff said, “Shenzhen Branch will also be dissolved” He denied it.

Adverse situation may continue until next year

B2B domestic trade as the three major service providers, one of the MadeInChina.com Huicong network, announced last August a high profile on-line, a major push into the foreign trade market, the reporters yesterday in Guangzhou Branch can see that “We are all bosses”, “we can Become a millionaire “and other red banners. Of the year, there is poor management of the situation »of its Guangzhou branch of the establishment of just over four months on the dissolution of the then»

To the domestic export enterprises as the main customers of e-commerce platform inevitably encountered this wave of cold weather. Insiders said that even China’s largest e-commerce Alibaba will also inevitably be affected, the Chairman of the Board Ma a call for “preparations for the winter,” the slogan, let alone MadeInChina.com Huicong net? »

Three domestic B2B trade service providers, one of the MadeInChina.com, closed this week to Guangzhou Branch trigger “wages” storm, and the site of this trade on line just over a year. This shows that SMEs in exports blocked situation, Alibaba, Huicong, such as foreign trade platform for small business is also facing pressure.

Chung Min Lee told reporters that this year foreign trade situation well, Alibaba, and other enterprises that have over the winter, the company can still in the first quarter results, but the second quarter and fell in the third quarter, it is unexpected. Another said that the appreciation of the renminbi and foreign demand for the dual impact of lower in the first half of 2008 China’s total export performance is not satisfactory.

According to the company staff Baoliao, yesterday visited the Oriental Plaza in the sixth floor of the company’s branch office in Guangzhou, Mr Lee told reporters staff, “Branch was set up in April this year, but in June, the staff began Have left their companies are to receive the wages of white bars. “Currently the remaining 15 were also received on September 2 at Headquarters,” do not have to go to work tomorrow, “the notice.

According to figures given by the staff, from the branch general manager, to general manager of the company for more than 10 in-service staff should be paid the salaries of 100,000 yuan, these wages are not fulfilled, some emotional or even to relocate staff Taking equipment company.

India 2nd largest market; forms 10% of users: Alibaba.com

New Delhi, Sept 3 (UNI) Alibaba.com, China's biggest business-to -business website, today said India has become its second largest international market after the US with 5,40,000 registered users.

''India is now our second largest international market after the US, and members from the country make up close to 10 per cent of all registered users on our English-language marketplace,'' The website, which connects small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with buyers and sellers globally, added over one lakh users from India in the second quarter alone, representing a sequential growth rate of 26 per cent.

Gauging the importance of the Indian market, Alibaba.com had launched a dedicated India channel last year, which was its first country-specific channel.

The India channel caters specifically to local suppliers and provides an easy-to-use and efficient platform for international buyers to source from India.

The company has also launched 'Export-to-China' service in August 2008 to enable Indian SMEs to sell direct to China's growing number of buyers. It provides Indian businesses with a Chinese-language online storefront on Alibaba.com's China marketplace, which has an active community of nearly 27 million buyers and suppliers.