After reading the Taobao case, I tried to searched "Zhao Cai Jin Bao"(招財進寶) in Chinese for more information. The result is quite interesting. Taobao online shops actually doesn't like it at all!! Shop owners felt that they are forced to pay more for selling online. Angry owners even form "anti-Taobao" groups online to protest the new Zhao Cai Jin Bao bid ranking service. This drove Jack Ma to pay attention to owner's idea. Then, 32 days after the announcement of Zhao Cai Jin Bao, on 2006, 6, 21, Alibaba announce the termination of Zhao Cai Jin Bao.
In my opinion(can be very subjective), the business model of Zhao Cai Jin Bao is quite reasonable. It is similar to Google Adwords!! However, Chinese online shop owners may need more time to realize that in order to earn more from online shops, they need to invest!! There is no free lunch, as a Chinese proverb goes.
Read more from the following links
1 comment:
First of all the protesters are small vendors, i believe. As for bigger fishes i think its a good opportunity to increase their revenue ,if there will be fewer fish in the sea.
In general i agree with your comment, but i think their could be more fair solution to this as charge merchants depending on their size of business. Even though Tmall is an independent company and no one is forcing them, but as Mr.Ma recalls "The most important thing is to have a critical mass."
Post a Comment