MadeInChina.com is a B2B e-commerce site that focuses on helping foreigners to source supplies that are made in China. It works like Alibaba.com (HKG:1688) but this space is certainly big enough for more players to enter and fight for. MadeInChina charges a commission whenever a deal is successfully transacted on the site. Business is good with sales growth rate from Q3 to Q4 in 2011 seeing a 700 percent increase. Its rapid growth has caught ePRO’s attention, who announced on December 31 that it acquired the site back in November. ePRO is ...
Tag Archives: B2B
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![What Social Tools Are B2B Marketers Using? [STATS]](http://www.penn-olson.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/B2B-250x241.gif)
Nov 30 2011
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Alibaba’s China B2B Site Reaches 50 Million Registered Users
With all the news about Taobao and Tmall, it's easy to forget that Alibaba also has a giant, global B2B ecommerce platform that's also growing. As of today, the Alibaba China site alone has more than 50 million users. Did we mention this is a B2B platform, not a consumer one? And that that number is just their China site? Impressive. Interestingly, the site has also seen healthy growth in the number of registrations coming from central and western China -- areas that are less economically developed than the prosperous east ...
Sep 26 2011
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Dangdang.com Calls for (Metaphorical) Beheadings in New 360Buy Price War
“Operation Beheading” is more the kind of phrase you’d expect from cave-dwelling terrorists or vengeful Mexican narco-bosses - but it’s actually the name of the new Chinese e-commerce price-cutting war that Dangdang.com has launched against 360Buy.com. Over the weekend, Dangdang (NYSE:DANG) decided that a 3C - computers, communications, consumer - price war would be the best way to decapitate its upstart rival. Chinese media reports that this is aimed particularly at notebook computers, digital cameras, and mobile phones. Chatting with netizens on Weibo, Dangdang’s joint chief exec, Francis Chan, boasted of a ...
Sep 19 2011
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Alibaba.com to Launch Factory Checks in New Push for Security, Trust
Alibaba.com, China’s massive B2B trade platform, is pushing security by introducing onsite checks - actual physical visits to factories and supply warehouses - to verify all of its paid-up ‘gold suppliers.’ Its stated aim is to build up trust and and peace-of-mind for buyers. It’s going to be a mammoth task: there are just over 120,000 such suppliers who use the site to sell their wares around the world. That’ll require tens of thousands of factories be visited and inspected in this new Alibaba scheme, which will start next month. The checks ...
Sep 17 2010
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B2B, Social Media and Search
Search is especially crucial for business-to-business (B2B) enterprises and it seems that social media is playing an important role to improve B2B’s search performance. According to data from BtoB magazine and Business.com, almost half of the B2B marketers surveyed indicated that social media has positive influence over search performance. So, how does social media improve search? Generating inbound links is the trick and social media is the vehicle to do just that. Businesses, which are capable to produce compelling content, usually see better result. Great content is easily sharable and garners engagement. ...
May 27 2010
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Social Media Is Not Irrelevant To B2B Companies
The debate of whether social media is effective for B2B companies has existed for a long time. There are very valid questions about social media’s relevance to business, and its ROI. According to eMarketer, 46% of B2B respondents revealed that social media is perceived as irrelevant to their companies. Traditional marketing tactics were preferred, and even with social media engagement, 34% of respondents were not measuring ROI. While it is indeed harder to relate B2B companies to social media, there are huge opportunities to look into. Companies, such as Pipersport, are successful examples. Most ...
May 17 2010
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What Social Tools Are B2B Marketers Using? [STATS]
According to a research by Genius.com and BtoB magazine, 5 out of 10 business-to-business (B2B) marketers aren't using social platforms like blogs and Twitter. Facebook is slightly more popular with about 58% using the giant social-networking site for marketing purposes. (This re-affirmed an earlier study that highlighted Facebook's effectiveness.) Unsurprisingly, LinkedIn, a professional social-networking platform, where user base mainly consists of high profile executives and people who're more business oriented, is used by 75% of the respondents. 94% also use marketing analytics like Google Analytics or sentimental analysis to keep track ...
Apr 8 2010
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The Big B2B Social Media Marketing Plan
After sharing our "big social media marketing plan," which illustrates how different social and traditional tools can be integrated to form a complete social media marketing plan, we realized that it does not apply very well to B2B companies. While B2C companies target end users, B2B companies target other companies, making it hard to imagine how social media can be of relevance to them. Nonetheless, we will try to show you how social media can be an important marketing channel to some B2B marketers. This article wasn't written to convince B2B ...
Mar 27 2010
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4 Important Social Media B2B Marketing Lessons
B2B marketers often have to approach the market differently from B2C marketers. For that very reason, it is often hard to think of new ways to generate more revenue. Hiring skilled B2B sales people is undoubtedly still the best channel to generate sales. How about the Internet? Can social media play a part in B2B businesses? Certainly! In fact, many have already started using social media to their advantage. However, we understand that even savvy marketers are struggling to use social media effectively for B2B companies. To help you with that, Mashable's Tamar ...
Mar 26 2010
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Facebook Is More Effective Than Twitter For B2B
Ask me if social media can work for B2B companies, I will say, "yes." Ask me if Twitter is a more effective B2B marketing tool than Facebook, I will say, "it depends." But according to Outsell’s “Annual Advertising and Marketing Study 2010,” B2B companies think that Facebook is the most effective social tool. Also, marketing spending on social media sites are predicted to increase by 43.3% this year. - Contradictorily, when HubSpot surveyed B2B companies in North America, 45% rated LinkedIn effective, while only 33% said the same for Facebook. So, what's happening here? Well, ...
Mar 4 2010
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5 B2B Companies and Luxury Brands On Social Media
We often mistake skepticism as rationality. There are so many people out there who weigh possible loss more heavily than potential gain. But of course, it's in our nature to be that way. However, we can either look at being searchable online as an opportunity to be found by future employers, clients and business partners. Or we can look at it as an invasion of privacy. Businesses can try to find reasons not to use social media or they can find creative ways to make it work for them. There are many people who ...
Dec 23 2009
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What Have B2B Companies Got To Do With Social Media?
Have to admit, I do not know much about B2B marketing, but I do know that B2B companies have got quite a lot to do with social media. The quickest place to know more about a business is online. That's why B2B companies spend lots of time improving their search rankings. A simple search on Google would return their website, social media profiles, blog and related buzz. If these companies don't supervise what customers are going to see when they search for them, they are losing out on potential leads. The main difference ...
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Japan’s Social Giants: Trends in User Numbers [CHART]
Feb 8, 2012
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Feb 8, 2012
Perx’s ‘Chop Mob’ Helps Coffee Bean Increase 50% in Transaction
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