When companies can claim successful operations in America, they then look towards opportunities beyond this nation’s borders. Corporations like Walmart, Google, Facebook, and Apple have all recently expanded operations and sales in emerging market countries (BRICs) such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China to tap into markets that have demand for products but few suppliers. A trend toward economic growth in these locations has also led to rising local firms one of which, Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce site has broken boundary after boundary in command China.
Alibaba is an e-commerce site founded in 1998 that now accounts for 60% of the packages shipped through China’s postal service. Jack Ma, the Alibaba’s CEO is an enthusiastic former English teacher with little technological knowledge but the ability to bring great minds together to form strong business strategies. This underdog and his company have surged to the top of the Chinese market and are now engaged in forming an initial public offering on American markets. Even more so, advertising on Alibaba has expanded rapidly and will be a digital advertising vendor to rival the likes of Yahoo! and Google. So if those digital ad giants were worried about Amazon’s new developments in online advertising, they should worry about China’s own Alibaba which already has a huge inroads into the market through the Taobao affiliate network.
This will be a fascinating landscape to watch in the coming years. Who will win in China? Will Alibaba hold it's ground? Will Alibaba's new advertising outlets lead the way to a freer Chinese economy? Will Google and Yahoo! make further inroads into China? Will Amazon and Walmart face competition from Alibaba on their home turf? How will this impact digital media planners and advertisers? What will further expansion into China look like for advertising and media?
I definitely think that China's untapped markets will be exciting to watch. It will also be fascinating to see how e-commerce, advertising, and the internet impact China socially. As the Chinese people learn more about the United States, social freedoms, and free market opportunities through the internet it will be interesting to see what rights the Chinese government begins to give up and what laws it still holds on to. All of this will be interesting to watch from the public policy, digital media, and business angles.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/technology/the-unlikely-ascent-of-jack-ma-alibabas-founder.html
http://adage.com/article/digital/alibaba-ad-business-challenge-google-amazon/293083/
Alibaba is an e-commerce site founded in 1998 that now accounts for 60% of the packages shipped through China’s postal service. Jack Ma, the Alibaba’s CEO is an enthusiastic former English teacher with little technological knowledge but the ability to bring great minds together to form strong business strategies. This underdog and his company have surged to the top of the Chinese market and are now engaged in forming an initial public offering on American markets. Even more so, advertising on Alibaba has expanded rapidly and will be a digital advertising vendor to rival the likes of Yahoo! and Google. So if those digital ad giants were worried about Amazon’s new developments in online advertising, they should worry about China’s own Alibaba which already has a huge inroads into the market through the Taobao affiliate network.
This will be a fascinating landscape to watch in the coming years. Who will win in China? Will Alibaba hold it's ground? Will Alibaba's new advertising outlets lead the way to a freer Chinese economy? Will Google and Yahoo! make further inroads into China? Will Amazon and Walmart face competition from Alibaba on their home turf? How will this impact digital media planners and advertisers? What will further expansion into China look like for advertising and media?
I definitely think that China's untapped markets will be exciting to watch. It will also be fascinating to see how e-commerce, advertising, and the internet impact China socially. As the Chinese people learn more about the United States, social freedoms, and free market opportunities through the internet it will be interesting to see what rights the Chinese government begins to give up and what laws it still holds on to. All of this will be interesting to watch from the public policy, digital media, and business angles.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/technology/the-unlikely-ascent-of-jack-ma-alibabas-founder.html
http://adage.com/article/digital/alibaba-ad-business-challenge-google-amazon/293083/