Ali-Credit

A news report has popped up in a couple of places about the launch in Chongqing of a "credit archive" using Alibaba's e-commerce platform. The ChinaTechNews.com story is the first trace I can find of it in English:

According to a representative from Alibaba quoted in local media, the Credit Archive shows the credit records of foreign trade enterprises. By combing the traditional credit certifications and the interaction on the Internet, it dynamically shows the credit situation of each enterprise, making the information more accessible to clients and exposing potentially hazardous companies at the same time.

The trustworthy-ness of potential business partners is clearly an issue on Alibaba's mind and in the minds of its users. We wrote back in May about the credit-rating agency elements of its deal with China Commercial Bank. More recently, we wrote about the woes of naive traders in the US who have forgotten (or maybe never knew) the basics of trading caution. With the demise of Latin in the school curriculum, I fear they don't know the meaning of caveat emptor.

With the traditional ratings agencies under a cloud/almost totally discredited (you choose) by the sub-prime mortgage mess in the US, this may be a tremendous business opportunity for the boys in Hangzhou to carve out another strong niche for themselves in China business.