Busy week in Hangzhou

It's been a busy week at Alibaba.com. Earlier in the week, it was widely reported that the company was investing in classified site koubei.com. The amounts of the investment and percentage of the company acquired were not confirmed although rumours in the mainland consistently mentioned a figure of around $6 million for the company. Koubei, like Alibaba, is located in the scenic Zhejiang city of Hangzhou.


Elsewere, Alibaba.com founder Jack Ma is reported to have told a Singapore conference that Yahoo! China will go all Web 2.0-ey and base itself much more on user generated content. We get the sense that early enthusiasm in the wake of the Yahoolibaba deal for Yahoo! as a Google-busting search engine has been dented and that Jack and boys are a seeking a new way forward for their big brand.

This may not be unrelated to their realisation that baidu.com is going to be hard to beat. It has just announced Q3 earnings up 900%. Even that hasn't satisfied some who were reported to be disappointed with Baidu's results. There are even suggestions that the company is now 'in play' although others vigourously discount this rumour.