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Taiwan --- Alibaba.com, a major business-to-business (B2B) Web portal, launched its Taiwan Web site yesterday, providing an online marketplace for global trade and other services for importers and exporters. Taiwan's version of alibaba.com will join its Chinese, Japanese and American counterparts.

David Wei, CEO of the company, said alibaba.com already has 40,000 Taiwanese members. He illustrated the resourcefulness of the Web site by stating that after its release, all forms of businesses can be established through alibaba.com.

Wu Shing-han, a representative from UPS Taiwan, commented on how Taiwan businesses will benefit from the services provided by alibaba.com. He noted that the Web site will help maintain the competitiveness of Taiwanese businesses by facilitating greater exchanges between Taiwan and China. He further added that alibaba.com will also connect Taiwan to the rest of the world, thus creating a forum in which Taiwan businesses can expand outside Taiwan. "Rather than flying everywhere, you can just simply go on alibaba.com," Wu exclaimed.

Tsui Jen-fu, an official of alibaba.com, reinforced this sentiment by stating that as alibaba.com's greatest market will be in China, greater emphasis and resources will be placed on the Chinese version, thus allowing Taiwanese businesses to benefit as well.

Steve Kang, sales manager of the Taiwan branch of alibaba.com, stated the Web site has provided a growing online population. "In China, alibaba.com has 24.8 million registered members; outside China, alibaba has 4.9 million registered members around the globe," he said.

"We aim to help Taiwan's small and medium enterprises (SMEs)," Kang emphasized. He explained that while 97.7 percent of Taiwan companies are SMEs, they only contribute to 18 percent of Taiwan's exports. "This shows that there is still much room to grow for these companies," he said.

Manager of CP Group International Co. Ltd., Liu Chih, recommended alibaba.com, saying that since becoming a member of alibaba.com, his company's sales have increased 100 times within two years, from NT$1 million to NT$100 million.

When asked about whether any cultural conflicts would arise between the Chinese and Taiwanese versions of the Web site, Wei responded that rather than conflicts, the creation of the Web sites will lead to greater diversity, which Wei said is beneficial, adding that several of the board members are also Taiwanese.

Source-asiamedia.ucla.edu

Ezeego1.com, the travel meta-search site, has tied up with redBus (www.redBus.in ), the largest consolidator of bus operators (over 270) to provide bus bookings on a real-time basis on its site. Customers can now book bus tickets on more than 3,600 bus routes across the country.

Speaking on the launch, Ms Neelu Singh, COO, ezeego1.com said, "We have always been pioneers in introducing new services and in redBus we found a unique opportunity as it would provide our customers one more option for their travel needs."

Re-affirming redBus'' partnership, Charan Padmaraju, Co-founder redBus, stated that, "redBus found great synergy with ezeego for launching the bus service on their website because we noticed that there are many customers who fly to a particular destination and then take a Volvo bus to cover the last leg due to the lack of airport facilities in some towns. This partnership is to add value to such customers and help them plan their entire trip in one go."

The unique aspect of redBus service is that it allows a passenger the flexibility in terms of choosing the type of bus (A/C, Volvo, non A/C or Sleeper), seat preference and pick-up and drop points.

Ezeego1.com, is one of its kind virtual travel market-place that offers all travel related services. On one hand are the suppliers i.e. the airlines, hotels, tour operators, transporters, insurance companies, the forex dealers and on the other are the customers, both B2B and B2C. The portal is a Travel Meta Search Site where the consumer gets real time information and transaction capability online. It uses the best technology platform in the Indian travel industry.

Ezeego1.com offers a real time web based booking engine which is seamlessly integrated to the mid and back office. It also employs a unique Single Window platform for multiple services, so one does not have to enter and exit different systems. It is the only reservation system that offers a dynamic packaging of all services with real-time inventory.

Ezeego1.com has strong online and offline fulfilment systems, different modes of delivery and collections, which help cater to the customer in any part of India. The portal has tied up with various payment gateway options.

redBus ( www.redBus.in) is India's first and largest online bus tickets company. It has a national presence, with its headquarters at Bangalore. redBus can be accessed on www.redBus.in or at any of their 9 call centers in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Vijayawada or Vizag.

Customers get the advantage of choosing their seats online, getting tickets home delivered for over 270 bus operators and over 3600 routes in the country.

Andrea Lopez - Mumbai

The IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI) plans to sign a contract with WorldSpan as one of the GDS providers for its B2B portal I-Top 8. The portal has already registered 50 members so far and hopes to expand its membership base once completely in place. Says Biji Eapen, president of IAAI, "We have just concluded our trial run with Amadeus and are now in the process of finalising the details of the contract with WorldSpan."

As reported by Express TravelWorld earlier, the B2B portal will hold payment gateways in addition to hotel reservation and car rentals. "Members will be able to create a profile for their own sub-agents and clients," adds Eapen.

Source: expresstravelworld

According to an iResearch report released Friday, the overall B2B trading volume in China reached RMB 24.5 trillion (US $3.45 trillion) last year.

These sales numbers represent almost 58 percent of sales done by SMBs (small and medium-size businesses).

However, this marks the first time that the overall B2B trading volume of SMBs has been higher than that of larger companies. Despite this, many SMBs still opt for traditional marketing and sales routes over online trading, the report noted.

But the numbers also indicate that SMBs will increasingly use the Internet as a B2B trading platform over the next five years, said iResearch.

It also found that the online sales budget of China's SMBs accounted for about 14.2 percent of its total sales budget last year, up from 14.2 percent year-on-year.

SMBs have taken advantage of the government's drive to develop B2B and e-commerce applications, along with widening Internet penetration, the report said.

But on average, many obstacles still remain for SMBs in the lack of credit protection online, the rather slow development of third party payment solutions and a lack of staff skilled in the B2B segment.

Overall, most SMBs that used the Internet to trade were in the computer software, electronic appliances and clothing industries, the report said, with companies in the food industry being among the least likely to trade online.

Alibaba.com, the B2B trading platform that focuses on SMBs, continued to lead the B2B market for most of last year. Its revenues totaled RMB 2.25 billion (US $316.4 million), up over 65 percent year-over-year, accounting for 57.3 percent of China's total B2B revenues last year, up from 51 percent the previous year

Source: b2bnewsworld.info