Social Commerce in China Goes Beyond Sharing

[RomanKoshelev]

Social Commerce in China Goes Beyond Sharing
http://knowledge.ckgsb.edu.cn/2013/0...eyond-sharing/

[RomanKoshelev]

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But what kind of customer experience is Taobao aiming at with the launch of so many social sites? Are Faxian e-tao and Wantu here to stay? Alibaba declined to give specific details on the launch and closure of these social sites and the goals behind them. However, they did share with CKGSB Knowledge their efforts to “create an environment that allows users to better connect with each other”. According to spokesperson Shih, ”We are trying to add more social networking service (SNS) elements to our existing platforms such as Taobao.com and Tmall.com, what we have to do is to make it easier for consumers to make purchase decisions and merchants market their products through various SNS functions.” Taobao’s failures—and repeated attempts—in social commerce point that there can be various pitfalls along the way. Still, its parent company Alibaba is betting heavily on social commerce. In a recent article in Caixin, Alibaba’s Chief Strategy Officer Zeng Ming was quoted as saying, “Maybe in the future, a third of Taobao’s traffic will come from homepage categories, a third from online search and a third from interactive social networking.” The success of a social commerce model depends on the existence of a very sophisticated ecosystem. And that’s where the risk lies: it might be too fragile. Eric van Heck, professor at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, has done extensive research on Alibaba. He thinks that “the growth of the network will depend on the ability of each of the partners of the network to create sustainable value to the customers over time. This is the most crucial part: how to keep track of this process and manage growth”.

Read More at http://knowledge.ckgsb.edu.cn/2013/0...eyond-sharing/, Written by Iris Mir, Copyright © CKGSB Knowledge