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| TradeSparq homepage snapshot 13-Aug-2011 |
As per TradeSparq "Why people sign on Linkedin? One of the reasons is that they want to be connected with guys from their partners, sellers or customers. And why Alibaba has been popular for years, because it enables an easy way for buyers to discover thousands of manufacturers which are mainly from China. However, when you are on Linkedin, usually you don't know what products your contacts' companies are actually selling; and on Alibaba, as a manufacturer if you want more exposure, you should pay certain membership fee which is not cheap (~$3,012 per year for Gold Suppliers membership). As a buyer, you can be easily got lost as you don't know which supplier you should trust more. These are the issues TradeSparq wants to solve."
In 2010 TradeSparq was co-founded by Michael Kleist, Brian Hager, William Hund and several other foreigners who are now based in Shanghai. As one of the key guys behind TradeSparq, Michael, the ex-manager of GlobalSources in SEA has been working in the global trade market for years.
How TradeSparq works?
It starts with a free account. There is speciall application allows you to use your LinkedIn, Facebook, Google or Yahoo ID's to signup.
There are two categories that is Supplier & Buyer. If you are a supplier, you can add your products with detailed description, images, price etc; and if you are a buyer, you can fill up your company information and search for the products you desire. You can contact right away with supplier by sending a message to the person listed as supplier. At the same time just like LinkedIn, system allows you to send a request for connection. Through the social connections, you can also be aware of who your contacts are doing business with and got introduced to each other by the shared contacts.
Because it's Social, TradeSparq has its own metrics to list the search results in certain orders. The products which are supplied by the people who are connected with you or with your connections are listed first. “Because they are the people and suppliers you trust more” Michael said. “We also offers VIP membership which starts from only USD$15 per month, which means the VIP members who are in your social network will have more exposure than those non-VIP members. But we also ensure the suppliers who are linked directly with you always have the privilege than others, meaning your direct connections are always listed on the top of others even they are VIP members.”
With staff of less than 10, TradeSparq has already reached a small milestone of over 50,000 registered members with over 170,000 products listed. “The great thing about social sourcing is that we don't need that many of customer support like Alibaba as TradeSparq is dealing with the real persons who can directly communicate online.” Michael said, “and unlike other online global trade business for which more transactions are always the top priority, our goal for this year is to acquire more users. Users come to TradeSparq are always ready for sell and buy.”TradeSparq is self-funded and is now closing to an angel investment.
About TradeSparq Website:
Neatly designed with web 2.0 functionality, it looks like TradeSparq will face the same or maybe even more technical challenges as faced by parent B2B Marketplaces in the past. With technical challenges I mean search functionality. Before I say more about website functionality let me do some trade in social style ;)
Btw, nice work! I hope Tradesparq will be able to change the way B2B trade is going on from mainland China.
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2 comments:
Thanks for the review of Tradesparq -- it was very positive. As one of the founders of Tradesparq, I'm glad to see that people in the B2B trade industry understand how useful a social network around global trade will help with verification of trade partners as well as reducing the headache of searching for new trade partners.
Brian
There is always a need in B2B online marketplace industry to establish Trust among suppliers and buyers. Just like Apple launched ipod at the time when people with technology sense were looking for gadgets without keyboards and it got clicked as it was launched, similarly in this industry too any platform which can not only bring business but also take Trust as its core concept is long awaited. I think TradeSparq has that element in its business model.
I hope if idea is digested well by Chinese business culture then TradeSparq is a platform that can make a difference. Atleast as far as I see it can give freedom to buyers to easily source suppliers especially from mainland China.
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