HKTDC opens shop on Taobao

The Hong Kong Trade Development Council's (HKTDC) Design Gallery has opened a sales channel on Alibaba's Taobao.com. The HKTDC uses the Design Gallery to promote and sell products designed in Hong Kong. There are Design Gallery retail shops on-site at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the Hong Kong airport and in Beijing, but this is its first serious online effort.

The site on Taobao gives the HKTDC access to Taobao's impressive 143 million registered users in China.

The HKTDC is proving to be quite open to experimenting new platforms and applications. In November last year, the trade promotion body launched iPhone and Blackberry apps for all of its 30+ Hong Kong-based exhibitions. If we are not mistaken, the HKTDC was the first exhibition organiser to offer these type of apps. It will be worth watching where the HKTDC takes this next. There are plenty of emerging opportunities to link exhibitions with online platforms and the HKTDC seems to be willing to explore.