Sina Microblog to Enhance Ad Features for Taobao Merchants
Sina Tech, 8/01/13
Chinese internet company Sina's (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging platform and Hangzhou-based C2C & B2C e-commerce site Taobao have jointly announced a Taobao merchant account edition of Sina Weibo. The new Weibo-Taobao service will allow Taobao merchants to open Weibo microblogging accounts, posting new product updates and marketing Taobao products directly to customers on Weibo.
As a part of the partnership, Taobao and Weibo user accounts are now cross compatible, allowing Weibo users to access Taobao accounts with Weibo account log in information, and vice versa.
Merchants' Sina microblogging posts will now be displayed in follower news feeds in a new "product card" format, instead of Weibo's traditional hyperlink format. The "product card' will display detailed information such as merchandise price, seller rating, and total merchant sales. Weibo users may click the "buy" button on product cards to directly access Taobao's purchasing page, but will not be able to purchase goods directly through Sina Weibo.
In terms of Weibo back-end input options for merchants, the new Taobao merchant microblogging accounts will feature a simplified layout, with only text input, picture upload, and emoticon features (i.e. options to post music, videos, hashtags, etc. available to general Weibo account users will not be included in the back end for merchants). Sellers can click on the "goods" button to list up to nine products in any given post.
Taobao's online store decoration service Winport will add Weibo functionality to allow merchants to make postings and manage their Weibo-Taobao accounts.
The Weibo-Taobao Edition will be officially released on August 5, after which sellers will be invited onto the platform in groups.
Editor's Note: For more information on this topic, please see "Rumor: Sina Microblog to Launch Customized Taobao Version," MD 6/20/13 and "Rumor: Sina Microblog, Alibaba to Launch Social E-Commerce Platform," MD 7/30/13 issues.
Keywords: e-commerce Taobao Winport Internet marketing B2C C2C Sina microblogging Alibaba Group B2B
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