Alibaba to Release Mobile Versions of Merchant Tools
Sina Tech, 11/19/13
Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group has announced that the company will release a mobile e-commerce service platform, offering mobile versions of common Alibaba merchant tools. During the initial rollout of services, mobile merchant tools will only be available on mobile handsets running Alibaba's Aliyun OS. Merchants ordering mobile service packages on the Mjj.Taobao.com mobile e-commerce services page will be gifted an Aliyun OS handset as part of their order.
Alibaba mobile e-commerce service packages include online store decoration service Winport and transaction statistics service Taobao DataCube, both of which are available in PC form for merchants on Alibaba's C2C & B2C e-commerce site Taobao. Depending on the package purchased, Alibaba will offer a corresponding free handset to each customer. Initial investment in the promotion, which extends to the end of this year, has already reached RMB 500 mln. Alibaba is also planning to launch a customer service hotline, offering assistance to mobile e-commerce merchants.
Jonathan Lu, CEO of Alibaba Group, has stated that the moves represent a major step forward in the mobile commerce space, with the company to continue investing in mobile e-commerce services. According Alibaba VP Eddie Wu, the mobile version of Taobao now has more than 320 mln cumulative users.
Further details of the free handset promotion will be released later in the week, with orders for mobile service packages beginning at 10:00am on November 25 and lasting for an initial period of 24 hours.
Editor's Note: For more background on this topic, please see "Taobao Rewards Merchants for Attracting Mobile Customers" MD 11/14/13 issue.
Keywords: Jonathan Lu e-commerce Taobao Winport wireless B2C C2C Taobao DataCube Eddie Wu m-commerce e-commerce service provider
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