Alibaba: China’s Genie in a Bottle
Alibaba is China’s answer to Google and Yahoo!. The online site is 39 percent owned by Yahoo and recently entered a strategic partnership with Infomedia, the second-largest Yellow Pages publisher in India.
The agreement with Infomedia provides Alibaba access to the second-largest population in Asia. The deal with Infomedia opens the opportunity to sell online advertising to its more than 750,000 advertisers and leverages Infomedia’s sales force of 650 that can immediately begin to access a wider array of India’s SMB base.
According to The Wall Street Journal, “[Alibaba’s] move into India is part of its strategy to grow globally, as a large chunk of its revenue comes from domestic trade listings within China.”
As Google, Yahoo! and MSN continue to struggle in Asia and China in particular, homegrown Alibaba and Baidu continue to prosper in Asia. By tapping into population-dense countries, both Alibaba and Baidu have set themselves up for tremendous growth as both China and India’s middle class grows at exponential rates followed closely by the rapid adoption of broadband, mobile Web access and more stable business environments.
Once Yahoo and Google figure out how to “profit” off of China’s billions of small businesses & consumers – US advertisers and marketing experts will ‘trash’ their culture and society too…making a Chinese Madison Avenue the “norm” for the poor villagers across that nation too. Late night infomercials and MLM will soon flood those poor people lives too…like a plague!
Jeff
MBA