BaBa’s Got a Brand New Brand in China
April 17th, 2008 | by This is China! |Alibaba, the most famous B2B product-supplier directory in China, is also the tenth most popular search engine in the world, according to Comscore. But B2B hosts know time is running out for their traditional roles as information brokers for China manufacturers. “The Chinese government wants to develop its services industries,” Franziska Gloeckner recently told me.” Ms Gloeckner is Vice General Manager of Made-in-China. She’s a German national who has been with the Chinese company for more than four years. Made-in China holds the number two position in the China supplier internet portal business. “That means that in five or ten years time there may be fewer manufacturing companies in China.”
The Chinese government at national and local levels has mandated in the most well-developed regions in China that industries become less polluting, close up or move on. Governments are meting the same mandates to labor-intensive industries, which typically are low-value manufacturers with low capital requirements. At the same time, China is promoting the development of tertiary industries in its more prosperous regions. Tertiary industries include semiconductor, avionics and shipbuidng; and in services such as IT, financial and professional.
The result of the changes as policies are applied westward in the country is that the membership bases of China suppliers will erode over time, affecting advertising, membership and any achievable revenues from transactions. B2B market leaders like Alibaba are already shifting to a service model, with its companion directory Alimama.com. And with Alisoft, Alibaba will support suppliers in their backoffice through SAAS (Software as a Service) applications to run operations. Much like the American product Salesforce.com, suppliers will be able to download support applications that will be hosted in remote locations.
Made in China will have a completely new ring to it in five to ten year’s time.
