Alibaba.com turns up the heat on eBay

The sneering and snorting about "free stuff" from its B2B rivals has been somewhat muted in recent months as the scale of Alibaba.com's conquest of the China online sourcing market becomes clear....underlined by its massive deal with Yahoo.

Given the extent to which eBay has become a centre for small business activity, it seems reasonable to turn our attention to what Jack Ma and Co. are doing with their auction site, Taobao.com. Having closed the Yahoo deal this week, they immediately announced an injection of Rmb1 billion (US$125 million) into Taobao and, more importantly, confirmed that it will remain free for a least three more years.

They are already making strong headway: Alexa.com ranks Taobao.com at #28 and its measures suggest an audience almost 12 million users. eBay.com.cn ranks #52 and appears to generate an audience of around 7.5 million. The battle isn't over but it is increasingly well funded.

Cross-Cultural Challenges

An interesting post today from Matt McAlister, VP and General Manager, Online at IDG's InfoWorld regarding the different expectations of users in Asia and the US for web design. As Matt says:

In the translation they found some key differences in what motivates someone to participate online. The problem is not just about translating terminology in the user interface but also about interpreting interaction design models.

We are working with a number of clients who are moving product from the US and Europe to Asia. These cultural issues throw up all sorts of challenges which go well beyond the technicalities of translation or different character sets. Matt's post is particularly interesting as it deals with taking an Asian model to the US; most people's experience points in the other direction at this stage.

Cybermedia shows strong growth

I have liked what I see at Pradeep Gupta's Cybermedia for some time. The newly-listed IT publisher is one of the most credible and professional B2B media outfits in India. It has just reported strong Q2 performance with half year revenues up 38% at Rs238 million (US$5.3 million). Net profit was up even more strongly at Rs25 million (US$558,000), up 61%.

These B2B businesses in India are still small by international standards but, at these rates of growth, that won't be the case for long.

Thanks to Cybermedia as well for presenting its figures in (for we westerners at least) simple "millions". The mental gymnastics required to convert lakhs and crores into our more conventional measures is a challenge which is obviously now reserved for the local journalists producing articles like this who have to convert it back the other way!

Update: more Cybermedia news regarding a proposed internal restructuring in this post at ContentSutra.

Dilbert Blogs

Best news of the week (and quite irrelevant to the subject of this blog) by far is that Scott Adams, the irreverent genius behind Dilbert has started a blog. Now we can fritter away time and lift our spirits on both his cartoons and his postings.

Venetian Macau previews show calendar

In an early press release, the Venetian Macau has announced a calendar of over 20 exhibitions in industries as diverse as police and security, jewelry, hospitality, leather goods, real estate, automotive parts and accessories, high-end consumer goods, luxury boats, and investment forums. Committed organisers include China International Exhibition Center Group Corporation from Beijing; Koelnmesse and Messe Frankfurt from Germany; VNU Expositions Asia from the Netherlands; Australasian Gaming Machine Manufacturers Association from Australia; Reed Exhibitions Worldwide; CMP Asia headquartered in Hong Kong; and China Promotion, Coastal
International Exhibition and Adsale Exhibition Services Ltd. from Hong Kong.

This comes at the end of an intense period of personal lobbying of organisers by the Venetian's main shareholder, Comdex founder Sheldon Adelson. The new 80,000 sq. metre exhibition centre at the Venetian Macau is due to open in late 2007.

McGraw on China and India

Another US media mogul has been pontificating on opportunities in China and India. Last week, we reported on Time Warner's Richard Parson's comments on the matter in Hong Kong. This week, we find The China Stock Blog giving some air time to McGraw Hill CEO Terry McGraw's comments on the varying opportunities in the two markets.

"India is a very exciting market because of the political changes that have taken place about 12 months ago" he tells us. While, on China, he suggests"...in the five-year time frame I think we’re going to see in China continued stunning growth…..".

Baidu & China bank collaborate on payment

We're back from Moscow and catching up on the news. The Marbridge Weekly newsletter picks up on an interesting deal between stock market darling (at least for those who sold early enough) baidu.com and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China regarding on-line payment solutions.

Says the e-newsletter:

Under the agreement, Baidu's customers can log on to ICBC's online payment platform to pay for Baidu services, such as movie downloads and web-based message sending

It continues:

Alibaba PR director Wang Shuai noted that with the establishment of the online payment platform, its possible Baidu could move to more fully enter the e-commerce market. In fact Baidu is only one step away from becoming a real e-commerce provider, lacking only operation of a dedicated shopping website. In response Baidu spokesman Liang Dong claimed Baidu has no plan for the development of B2B or C2C services, and will continue to focus on Chinese online search services.

Whatever the trust about Baidu's, the issue of online payment solutions will be at the heart of the development of e-commerce in both the B2B and B2C arena in China. We have written about this several times, most recently in relation to Global Payments.

Strakosch on Asia

The folk at Jordman Edmiston, the media investment bank, have been having a busy year with all the B2B M&A in the US. Their news updates are often quite interesting and we were interested to see this interview with Greg Strakosch. TechTarget has featured in a lot of my discussions with clients this year and the company's CEO has some interesting insights into the position Asia will play in their future.

A couple of highlights here:

The dynamics in Asia are actually more similar to the U.S. than they are different. In regards to audiences conducting research online, this is true across the global Internet. Advertisers in Asia are interested in generating strong ROIs on their ad spend, so content providers are under the same pressures in all countries. Since these two major trends exist both in Asia and the U.S., the same types of market opportunities are also available in both places.

and:

Our expansion into Asia is a new effort for us, so the partnerships that we have forged there are less than a year old. We have just partnered with Softbank in Japan, and this effort will launch later this year. So, the financial impact to TechTarget won't be very meaningful in 2005. However, five years from now, we believe the impact of these efforts is going to be substantial, since such a great proportion of the IT market is outside the U.S.

Reed loses Singapore air show

Big news in the Asian exhibitions industry with a Reuters report that Reed has failed to renew its contract with the Singapore government to manage Asian Aerospace, the largest air show in Asia.

The report says:

Singapore will run an airshow on its own from 2008 onwards after it failed to reach a deal with the existing organisers.

It goes on to say:

The last show on the current site near the city-state's Changi airport -- run by Reed Exhibitions and Singapore defence and aircraft maintenance firm Singapore Technologies Engineering -- will take place in February next year.

ChannelNewsAsia, Singapore's own cable news TV station, says that the new fair will be called the Changi International Airshow. It adds that Reed is apparently looking to keep the Asian Aerospace name alive and find a new venue for the show. Langkawi and somewhere in Thailand would presumably be high on their list.

This is always a risk with any management contract but leaves Reed's south-east Asian portfolio looking awfully thin outside Thailand.

More insights also here including a statement from Reed Exhibitions chairman Mike Rushbridge.

Parsons tips his hat to India

Speaking in Hong Kong today at an American Chamber of Commerce lunch, Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons indicated, as we have suggested in several recent articles, that India is looking more attractive than China to media companies right now. Reuters quotes him saying:

"India, I think, offers more current potential for us as it has a stronger rule-of-law culture," he said.

The obstacles in India are largely technical due to a lack of infrastructure, but there are fewer regulatory and cultural hurdles to overcome than in China, he said.

"I think gradually, gradually, they'll open up in their way," he said, referring to the Chinese market.

Speaking for myself, I don't think I'll be holding my breath waiting for that opening.