Next week's case study on Taobao and today's special lecture on mobile learning reminded me of the research project I conducted on Asian mobile commerce trends during my summer internship. Basically, all indicators are showing that in China and other developing markets, mobile is THE driver of e-commerce growth, and retail growth in general.
I found out that in the US, channels for both traditional retail and non-mobile e-commerce are generally well-developed, and consumers prefer to use these channels. However, in Asia, 69% of respondents (2011 Accenture survey) say they find mobile phone more convenient than other payment methods, while only 26% of European and US respondents agreed. Same thing for e.g. mobile coupons (83% vs. 52%), bank account balance inquiries (62% vs. 33%) and stock trading (31% vs. 4%). Clearly, as implied in today's lecture, developing countries seem to 'skip' building traditional channels and have new mobile technologies as growth drivers. Indeed, the number of mobile internet users in China is expected to grow to a whopping 957 million by 2015. M-commerce market is growing at an annual rate exceeding 400%.
Looking at these growth figures, one can but recognize the ingenuity of Taobao's strategy of giving the ultimate incentive - making it FREE of charge - to conducting e-commerce on its platforms, and ultimately drawing profits from advertising to all the consumers flocking to its site.
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