Alibaba.com looking to offer India-specific content

After successfully registering 1 million members from India, Alibaba.com is looking to expand its presence in India further. The company has announced to launch customised content to fulfill the needs of Indian suppliers, buyers and traders. The changes might take place after the new lunar holidays in March 2010.

 

“In the next few weeks, Indian users of Alibaba would have access to content that is designed factoring in the local needs and culture. The users will get mailers on director market material and other mailers customised for India,” Mr Bharadwaj Pudipeddi, Sales Planner (Global Sales - Sales Programmes), of the company, told Business Line.

 

He added that Alibaba was gaining popularity among the small traders and SMEs. Last year, the membership in India doubled to 10 lakh (1 million) in just one year.

 

Among the Indian users, traders and businesses involved in minerals and metals received good response from their counterparts in China.

Recently about Alibaba.com on B2B Trade Blog:

• Jack Ma (Ma Yun) Speech - Small is Beautiful - Alibaba.com
• Chinese B2B marketplace Alibaba.com backs entry into UK with ad campaign
• Chinavasion Advice For Alibaba AliExpress - 5 Warnings 

EC21.com Launches B2B Community Service and Discussion Forums

Following the footsteps of other global B2B marketplaces, EC21.com has also launched a service for its members to communicate each other within the website. The new Community Service, which is specially designed for global traders, includes 3 specific categories - Trade-related, Product-related and Non-Business.

Trade related topics such as basics of import and export, buyers lounge, trade shows and safe trading tips are welcomed by many EC21 members. As more users participate and more information is accumulated, the topics are expected to be extended to other areas including custom, tax, trade documentation and etc.
“Working in international trade industry, most of the SMEs suffer from lack of knowledge on international business. To fill the demand of SMEs regarding trade related matters, EC21 has developed a community forum service where users can freely exchange their experience and specialty with other fellow business people”, said System Development officer of EC21.
Same as trend setter Alibaba.com, the Community Service enables members’ active participation by evaluating and rewarding their contribution. Contribution is measured by the number of articles and comments by the user. Members can also evaluate other users by rating the user’s article, which makes new community service more interactive. With these features, the new service is expected to attract more business people to the website www.ec21.com and thus bringing benefits to existing and new-coming user altogether.
“I believe that our new service can help our members actively interact and react to each other so that they can produce ‘User-Created contents’ in its true meaning. This will be a part of our value-added contents and at the same time benefit members” said Tae-Sung Kim, the executive vice president of EC21. Really? Lets see!
It is open for all EC21 paid and free members and it is said that membership registration process will be simplified to help traders more easily become a member of EC21.

For more detail, visit http://community.ec21.com/

EC21 is a Korean online B2B Marketplace online since 1998, is one of the world's B2B marketplaces. So far they have 3 major e-marketplaces: 1. Global B2B marketplace (www.ec21.com) for worldwide exporters and importers, a Chinese-version marketplace (cn.ec21.com), and a Korean version marketplace (kr.ec21.com) for domestic traders in Korea. EC21 is headquartered in Seoul, Korea has 8 regional sales offices throughout mainland China along with sales offices in Vietnam, Turkey, India, Italy and Pakistan.

I liked the popular searches section on their homepage. It shows creative side of this website ;)

Taobao, Alipay sales rose to 100 mln more than the anticipated

February 23, 2010: Alibaba Group's e-commerce marketplace Taobao.com set sales records and prove they have the experience and grounding to expand beyond China's borders

 

Taobao.com, a de-facto shopping site in China became most favourite marketplace when shoppers all over China rushed to the website for the Lunar New Year (LNY) vacations shopping. US$249 million in sales was recorded which is around US$100 million more than the sales forecast.

 

In China sharing gifts come to peak near the lunar new year holidays. This year shoppers were too eager to send gifts online as some Taobao’s shops stopped offering products due to the flood of demand.

 

Related news about Taobao.com

• Alibaba Moves Kaube to Taobao.com - From Yahoo China Brand to Taobao
• China's Taobao transactions rise 97 pct in H1 2009
• Alibaba Group to display Koubei.com ads on Taobao.com

Jack Ma (Ma Yun) Speech - Small is Beautiful - Alibaba.com

WOW! I really admire his direct speech. November 16 2009, held in Singapore Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on SMEs. Brilliant speech from the Alibaba Group CEO, Jack Ma (Ma Yun). Lasted over 20 minutes, contains so many things to learn from his experience and worth listening to for any entrepreneur. The topic was "small is beautiful".

One thing I like about Jack Ma that he is always blunt in his speeches. In this speech too he said things like:

• Without successful SMEs, economy is not going to recover. 
• In the past it was like bigger is better, but in this century, small is beautiful.
• Jack Ma warned all SMEs, not just rely on the Government or the banks.

In Jack Ma's opinion, the financial crisis for large enterprises is a disaster, but for small businesses is a great opportunity. With information technology SMEs can provide better services to consumers in the 21st century. Flexible small and medium enterprises can better adapt to market needs and understand their problems.

Imagine the future world, accounting for 70% of the gross domestic product will create even greater value to small and medium enterprises, will address more jobs, real economic recovery depends on the recovery of small and medium enterprises. Jack Ma also called on governments and banks provide 5 million dollars of common size of financial products for SMEs.

One thing that is common in Jack Ma and me ;) that we two believe in competitors analysis. We both love competitors and learn from their experiences.

In the industry of B2B marketpalces, only one other CEO shares the same or maybe better courage is the CEO of Tradekey.com, he is just another young entrepreneur who really is committed to his dreams and passion. I guess the same about the CEO of Made-In-China.com and wish to see him soon ;)

Here is a recording on Youku.com

Is Tradekey better than Alibaba & other B2B Marketplaces? - A Review

Started in 2006 with 20 million USD investment by one of the biggest IT groups in KSA, Tradekey.com has again proved that it can be better than any other B2B marketplaces including the B2B giant Alibaba.com. Recently when Google shook results of most of the B2B websites by announcing its Caffeine update, Tradekey.com was found winning the race with its state of the art SEO strategy. One more badge added when Google rewarded them with Page Rank of 8.

With Google Page Rank 8, Tradekey.com has become the only B2B marketplace on internet leaving behind the B2B giant Alibaba.com who still stands at PR 7. Not only this Tradekey members counter shows that it has surpassed 4 million registered members count. Well according to the size of B2B market Tradekey still has long way to go but as long as the technological competition is, Tradekey, as a B2B marketplace, has made its mark now.

These are a few technological breakthroughs that this b2b marketplace has overcome. What about the business strategy? There are still many questions unanswered on various forums about the authenticity of suppliers. Every now and then buyers post their stories of being cheated by registered suppliers which Tradekey.com claims as Trusted.

What about Alibaba now? As per Jack Ma although he says that he loves competitors and unfortunately he sees no competitor far far away. Will Ma Yun (Jack Ma) of Alibaba.com be looking to hire experts from Tradekey.com after trying Yahoo & Google engineers? That time will tell!

Is ECVV.com a next online IPO B2B Marketplace from China?

3 years back when no one had idea, Alibaba.com, a b2b marketplace rocked the internet industry of China with its launch of IPO in Hong Kong Stock Exchange. With a successful first runner experience, Alibaba launched several projects including B2C & C2C websites to prove its dominance over the internet market.
According to one Bain & Company Report:

“Alibaba.com, credited with almost single-handedly creating China’s e-commerce market, is viewed as an innovation legend, achieving more than 70 percent compound annual revenue growth between 2005 and 2007 and scoring the second-largest e-commerce initial public offering in history after the legendary Google.”
Many investors took a sharp turn towards investing their money in different IT companies and tens of internet based businesses developed in China in last 3 years.

Made-In-China.com, another online B2B website launched IPO last year in 2009 on Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Both of the online marketing companies struggled hard in their first business decade.

ECVV.com, launched in 2003, is considered as another big name China based online b2b marketplaces. With a slight difference in business model, ECVV is also trying to help small & medium sized enterprises in China to get exposure to global buyers. With movement of their office from Bank of China building near CBD to bigger office in one of the IT Parks Shenzhen, there are rumors in market that ECVV might be the next star. Following the roadmaps of Alibaba & Made-in-China, ECVV has already adapted several strategies and now attracting the top talents from the IT market.
According to news, many investors including Shenzhen Govt. have shown interest in ECVV.com. And have already started providing support for the company. In an interview with the CEO of ECVV.com, Mr. Chen Dong, said that with his innovative strategy, he is hopeful to compete in international markets soon.

As the internet technology is shifting from big screen desktops to small screen hand held devices, there is a technology shift expected in next 2 years. The success of less innovative companies will remain a question.