Chinese Online Shopping Trends – Taobao, Alibaba, Baidu

According to iResearch the Chinese are really shopping online and companies are investing as well. Alibaba is investing 5 billion Yuan (US$ 725 million) in Taobao.com the online shopping site. Taoboa is China’s #1 auction site by sales volume. Yahoo is an investor in Alibaba and they compete with the search giant Baidu.com which Google invests in. Baidu is creating a new e-commerce concept in China that will have 10,000 sellers by the end of the year.

How big is the Chinese E-commerce Market?
Chinese Online Consumer Sales will increase to 126 Billion Yuan this year from 16 Billion Yuan in 2005 (WOW)

How any Chinese are Online?
253 Million Users have shopped online in China (roughly 1/3 of the population)

Did you Know Ebay doesn’t charge auction fees in China?
Yes, that’s true due to Taoboa not charging them and Chinese Ebay users jumped ship.

Who controls search in China?
Baidu has 65.8% of the China Search Market, that’s a challenge for existing companies as we have seen how Google has changed the landscape in the US.

Taobao.com – Main Site

Taoboa.com (blue line) vs. Baidu Statistics (red line)

Taobao Mall – Sub Store example

Taobao – Product Page
Very similar layout to an American e-commerce site in design and layout. In this case they are selling a Pomegranate whitening milky lotion

Taobao – Shopping Cart

Taobao – Customer Registration Screens

Alibaba.com
Alibaba.com connects millions of buyers and suppliers from around the world every day through three marketplaces: an English-language marketplace (alibaba.com) for global importers and exporters, a Chinese-language marketplace (alibaba.com.cn) for domestic trade in China, and a Japanese-language marketplace (alibaba.co.jp) facilitating trade to and from Japan. Together, its marketplaces form a community of more than 32 million registered users from over 240 countries and regions. Alibaba.com has offices in over 30 cities across mainland China as well as offices in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Europe and the US. The company had around 6,000 full-time employees as of June 2008.

Baidu.com – main Baidu site

Baidu.com – even U.S. viewers is way up

Baidu Services (looks just like Google right?)

Baidu – Search Results (extremely similar to Google Search display)

Overall, a dynamic landscape for both auctions, search and e-commerce in China. As the #1 market in the world emerges how will you profit from it?