Taobao » Buzz and the City

Taobao TV?

Leading online shopping site Taobao is still buzzing with 2 news on Sina involving TV stations.

Hunan TV is rumored to partner with Taobao for launching a joint e-business service. The Chinese TV networks, known for successful TV shows like Super Voice Girl (American Idol’s Chinese version) and #1 ranking in national audience behind CCTV group channels, launched a new online shopping channel called Golden Eagle Web which business unit is allegedly conducting negotiation with Taobao.

Another online TV shopping project launched on dec 2nd between Taobao and Wasu – Hangzhou cable TV operator. Wasu viewers will be able to purchase items from Taobao via the TV channel and also have access to Koubei.com, a Taobao subsidiary site featuring lifestyle content.

Does Taobao has ambitions for spreading its influence to inland TV networks in each regions? To be followed..

Source CMMI

Taobao, an Authoritarian Socialite?

Brian Clarke wrote about Google in Authority rules : “People respond to and follow important people more than others. And Google ranks important pages and sites higher than others.”

Social networks are now the new referrers of authority and brands are fighting to get these networks attention and even use mimetism. Why? Just because of the very simple question :

Who are you going to listen to when you buy something?

A. The friendly yet unknown woman/man/persona in the ad

B. Your friend, family or any person with similar interests

Something tells me most of us will go with B, meaning we are somehow each other special “Google”.

Let’s talk about growing trends and Internet facts in China :

x Boom of the Internet population : by the end of September 2009, Chinese Internet users had reached 360 millions (CNNIC)

x Growth of online shopping : online shopping transactions were worth 46.7 billion yuan (US$6.8 billion) in China in the first quarter, nearly twice as much as a year earlier, among which over three-quarters of that transaction value occurred among consumers on Taobao (iResearch)

x Growth of social networks along with a crave for participating – voting, acting, chosing.

So it is only a matter of time until we see more and more models emerging from these trends.

China’s Alibaba understands that very well : more engagement = more time spent on site = more $

According to the press release, “Alibaba is crafting social-networking platforms specifically to complement two of its core operations. The beta version of a Web site with Facebook-style applications and a Twitter-style feed is being grafted onto Taobao.com, Alibaba’s auction and retail Web site, a spokeswoman said. A more professional platform that the spokeswoman likened to LinkedIn is being added to Alibaba.com, the group’s business-to-business e-commerce operation.”

Taobao or the Gargantua of the E-Commerce

The platform, called Taojianghu, is designed by Taobao and supposed to encourage users to form groups and share their interests – in Taobao products that is.

Really, will adding some Facebook apps and tweet some stuff about products be really effective? How can we know when Taobao has volume (120 million registered users reported at the end of the first quarter, more than one-third of China’s total number of people online*) and a certain monopoly when it comes to e-commerce in China ?

Are we facing an Authoritarian Socialite?

The thing I find most laughable is that both Facebook and Twitter are blocked here, undesired, but a giant like Alibaba is still getting “inspiration” from them…

Legitimacy anyone?

Sources

* IResearch

Authority Rules

JLM Pacific Epoch

China Alibaba adds Social Networking to E-Commerce