China Yahoo to E-Commercialize Koubei & Social Networking Service Yahoo Guanxi

Alibaba Group has planned to e-commercialized daily life information website Yahoo Koubei (koubei.com) and social networking service Yahoo Guanxi in 2009. They will later be integrated into Alibaba's e-commerce system, said China Yahoo Public Relations Director Wang Tong.

China Yahoo designated its life information service and email services and Social Networking Service (SNS) Yahoo Guanxi as its key businesses in an annual meeting, as reported by Sina quoting a company insider. Team of over 60 employees has been established to generate profit from the e-commerce webstie in life services. All Yahoo China resoruces will be put towards life services in 2009 to meet the goals.

China Yahoo currently has nearly 700 employees, including nearly 200 for Koubei, but only 20 maintain and update China Yahoo content, said the Sina report quoting Wang. Search and blog services will not be emphasized in the future, and China Yahoo will not spend more money on search traffic, said Wang. China Yahoo has stopped providing some download and upload functions for its online photo service and plans to shut down its new community platform on February 28 due to business restructuring.

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.

Yahoo China ties with Koubei.com now

Yahoo China disclosed a business plan with Koubei.com (口碑网) with a view to fully developing a consumer-base search service.

Controlled by Alibaba group, both Yahoo China and Koubei.com are targeting for consumer to consumer market. The plan will direct its effort to bring convergence between these two portals, improving its productivity and efficiency in the areas of eCommerce, community and community.

Koubei.com was initialized in Hangzhou in 2004. Over the past three years, it becomes one of the high flyers to set foothold in most of China provinces. Its business extends from classified listings, community to forum. Koubei, means “words of mouth” in Chinese.

The news update came this morning did not unveil a full detail plan but it stresses the importance of building a strong search capability. Jack Ma, Chairman and Non-Executive Director of Alibaba.com, said the move would create a top-notched life style platform for consumers in China.

Alibaba's Koubei Partners With McDonald's For Cheaper Fast Food

Alibaba consumer information portal Koubei has partnered with McDonald's to release McDonald's e-coupons, reports Sina. Users can download the value meal coupons via handset from the McDonald's discount channel on Koubei's WAP site wap.koubei.com. Koubei has nearly five million registered members and access to the 40 million members of Alibaba's consumer-to-consumer (C2C) site Taobao.com, according to the report. Taobao partnered with McDonald's for a cross-promotion in September.