阿里巴巴巨资来“淘宝”
Alibaba Raises Bet On Taobao Site2008年10月09日 13时11分00秒
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(10/9) Alibaba Raises Bet On Taobao Site
By Sky Canaves
CHINA'S ALIBABA GROUP Holding Ltd. plans to invest five billion yuan, or about US$725 million, in its Taobao.com online shopping site over the next five years, the latest sign of an intensifying battle with Chinese Internet-search giant Baidu.com Inc.
Alibaba Group's investment more than doubles an earlier plan to spend two billion yuan on Taobao and is more than three times the 1.5 billion yuan Alibaba has invested in the site since it was established in 2003.
The move comes as Baidu is gearing up to challenge Taobao's status as China's No. 1 auction site by sales volume. Baidu last month started testing its consumer e-commerce platform, with 10,000 sellers drawn from across China. Baidu Youa, which translates as "Baidu Got It!," is expected to open before year end. The company declined to reveal how much it is spending.
Alibaba's decision was prompted by faster-than-expected growth for online shopping, not Baidu's move, Alibaba Chief Financial Officer Joseph Tsai said Wednesday.
Internet consulting firm iResearch projected that the total value of Chinese online consumer sales will increase to 126 billion yuan this year from 16 billion yuan in 2005. Taobao users bought and sold 43.3 billion yuan in goods on the site last year, Alibaba said. Transactions reached 41.3 billion yuan in the first half of this year. "We believe that online commerce will outgrow the Chinese economy," Mr. Tsai said.
About a third of China's 253 million Internet users have shopped online, research firm China IntelliConsulting Corp. reported last month, with three-quarters of online shoppers using Taobao at least once.
When Taobao came onto the scene in 2003, it undercut then-market leader eBay Inc. of the U.S. by not requiring sellers to pay fees for listing or selling. As eBay users switched to Taobao, the U.S. company was forced to drop its fees before dropping out of China altogether.
But competition is intensifying. EBay last year joined forces with TOM Online Inc., the mainland China Internet subsidiary of Hong Kong's TOM Group Ltd., to relaunch its auction site under the Eachnet brand. The site now has roughly an 8% market share of gross sales volume, according to iResearch. Tencent Holding Ltd.'s three-year-old Paipai.com has 9% -- a distant second to Taobao's 76% share.
"It will be hard for [Baidu] to get the market share from Taobao because users have very strong loyalty to Taobao," says Ning Liu, an analyst at technology-consulting firm BDA. "If Baidu's e-commerce platform cannot provide differentiated services it will be hard for it to take off." Mr. Liu said Baidu's main advantage is its search-engine presence, since many Internet users search Baidu for products they want to buy online. Baidu has 65.8% of the search market, according to China IntelliConsulting.
Alibaba's new investment will go toward technology upgrades, research and development, and marketing and promotion efforts on behalf of Taobao sellers, Mr. Tsai said. The company also plans to open Taobao's technology platform to third-party software providers for the site.
Funding will come from Alibaba Group's cash reserves, Mr. Tsai said. Last year's initial public offering of the group's business-to-business platform, Alibaba.com Ltd., in Hong Kong brought in US$1.2 billion for the parent company.
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阿里巴巴巨资来“淘宝”
2008年10月09日 13时11分00秒
【大 中 小】【关闭窗口】
--阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Group)计划在未来5年向旗下购物网站淘宝网(Taobao.com)投资人民币50亿元（合7.25亿美元），这也是该公司与中国互联网搜索巨头百度在线网络技术公司(Baidu.com Inc.)之间竞争日益白热化的又一迹象。
阿里巴巴集团对淘宝网的投资较此前计划的人民币20亿元增加了逾一倍，是2003年淘宝网创立以来阿里巴巴集团对其人民币15亿元的累计投资的三倍多。
目前百度正加大力度挑战淘宝网作为中国销量最大的拍卖网站的地位，上个月开始对旗下的消费者电子商务平台进行测试，吸引来了中国各地1万个卖家。百度有啊(youa.com)预计将于年底前投入运营。该公司拒绝透露投资规模。
阿里巴巴集团首席财务长蔡崇信(Joseph Tsai)周三说，该公司的决定是出于网上购物高于预期的事实，而不是因为百度的行动。
据互联网咨询公司艾瑞咨询(iResearch)预测，今年中国网上消费类产品销售额将从2005年的人民币160亿元增加至人民币1,260亿元。阿里巴巴称，淘宝网用户去年在该网站上共买卖了价值人民币433亿元的商品。今年上半年交易额达到了人民币413亿元。蔡崇信说，我们认为电子商务的增速将高于中国经济增速。
据研究机构北京正望咨询有限公司(China IntelliConsulting Corp.)上个月的数据，中国共有2.53亿互联网用户，其中约有三分之一的人有网上购物的体验，这其中又有四分之三至少使用过一次淘宝网。
2003年淘宝网创立时，由于不要求卖家支付注册和销售费用，所以相对于当时的市场领头羊美国公司eBay Inc.有一定的优势。随著eBay的用户转投淘宝，eBay被迫取消了收费，以免整个退出中国市场。
不过竞争变得越来越激烈。eBay去年联手TOM 在线有限公司(Tom Online Inc.)以易趣(Eachnet)的品牌重新推出了拍卖网站。TOM 在线是香港TOM集团有限公司(TOM Group Ltd.)在大陆的互联网子公司。艾瑞咨询的数据显示，该网站的销售额约占此类市场总额的8%。腾讯控股有限公司(Tencent Holdings Ltd.)3年前推出的拍拍网(Paipai.com)拥有9%的市场份额，远远落后于淘宝的76%的市场份额，位居第二。
技术咨询公司BDA的分析师刘宁说，百度很难从淘宝手中赢得市场份额，因为用户已经对淘宝有了很高的忠诚度；如果百度的电子商务平台无法提供差异化的服务，将很难有所发展。他说，百度主要的优势在于搜索引擎业务，因为很多互联网用户用百度搜索想要在网上购买的商品。据正望咨询的数据，百度拥有65.8%的搜索市场份额。
蔡崇信说，阿里巴巴的投资将用来为淘宝卖家进行技术更新换代、研发、营销和推广活动。公司还计划向该网站的第三方软件提供商开放淘宝的技术平台。
蔡崇信说，资金将来自阿里巴巴集团的现金储备。该集团旗下的企业对企业电子商务平台阿里巴巴网络有限公司(Alibaba.com Ltd.)去年在香港的首次公开募股(IPO)中为母公司筹得12亿美元的资金。
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