羊叨

Taobao Strategy

Taobao was established in 2003. It broke through its growth in the blockade of competitors in 2004. And it growed beyond ebay in 2005. In 2006 it made the first of Asia’s shopping Websites. In 2008 big Taobao strategy emerged. In 2009 Taobao registered users exceeded 1 billion. When arriving in 2010 Taobao registered users exceeded 2 billion.

There is a legendary arena about Taobao establishment. In the end of March 2003, 10 employees were called one by one into the secret of Ma’s office. Everyone was told there will be a very difficult “secret mission”.After the 10 employees appeared “disappeared”, including Sun Tongyu who is studying abroad. In May 10, Taobao appeared in public. Ma explained to them the secret mission of two month ago  is to “do a site like eBay”.

From the development Taobao during these years, Taobao get much better growth than ebay.

Taobao’s success relay on its corporate values and Ma precise layout of the Internet.

Corporate values is the soul of the enterprise. Taobao’s values concentrate in six areas ,which has been dubbed as “six pulse Excalibur“. Now it is known to all that Taobao’s values is customer first, teamwork, embrace change, integrity, passion and dedication.

Now let us understand how Ma layout Taobao In the Internet.

• Firstly and basicly, Taobao perfects the function of online shopping.
  Many people have different values upon the importance of Products, capital, market. In my opinion it is products that achieives companies who did it well and ruins companies that didn’t. It is ture for not only foreign companies like Google and Microsoft but also local companies like Baidu and Tencent.
  To be mentioned, there are 7 ued teams in the Internet, three of which belong to Alibaba company, and Taobao ued is noticeable.
  In October 2010, Taobao launched Taobao mall, which is known as the vertical shopping platform.
  In August 2010, Taobao were revised. And new billing platform was established in order to provide a better user experience.
• Secondly, Taobao started the big logistics plan.
  Logistics paly a very important role in E-commerce, for the time used in logistics links accounts for more than 90 percent of the total time. Sometimes the logistics service level determines the level of online shoppong service. Currently logistics services providers are “Si Tong Yi Da”, ShunFeng, TNT, and other third-party logistics service providers in Taobao platform. Towarding the reality, Taobao officially announced its long-awaited major logistics plan in June 18 2010, which included the logistics system, logistics service partners and content standards. The purpose of the big logistics plan is to provide better logistics service and reduce costs.
  Some particular things to mentioned, Taobao established “BaiShi logistics” logistics companies jointly with Guo TaiMing in April 2008.
  In July 2010 Taobao signed with XingChengJiBian, WuZhouZaiXian ShenZhenHuaQiang to provide logistics service in Chengdu, Shanghai, Shenzhen.
• Thirdly, Taobao stepped into the online search business.
  We all know that Taobao is in a bad relationship with Baidu. In August 2010, Taobao shares Sogou company. Since then on, Alibaba Group is not only a financial investor to Sogou, but also will be a cooperator in the operational level.
  In October 2010, Taobao launched a search engine website named “YiTaoWang”. The website trys to solve the problems before and after consumer purchase, and aims to provide users with purchasing decisions, finding appropriate goods fasterly.
• Besides, I would like to share some other things about Taobao.

1. Ma limit Taobao profit
   In the Sun Tongyu age, Taobao management had issued such an order – not allowed to profit within three years. At that time Taobao C2C areas just occupied most of China’s online shopping market share. In this case, Ma proposeing “excessive profit executives should be punished”  conveyed the message more than develop the market.
2. Taobao’s attitude toward advertising business
   In September 2009, a well-known business brand made a request to Taobao. But Taobao replied that the ads may not work well and need to be promoted. The ads business refused. As a consequense of that, the brand did get the expective sales return. There is a principle when Taobao deals with advertising business – ads directly into sales profits must exceed ad spending.
3. Taobao bank
   In September 2010,  ”Alibaba Zhejiang Commercial Bank” is said to be establish.The bank aims at providing small loans to online shopping sellers.

Taobao has three visions, to be “the first data sharing platform”, to be “the company of highest happiness index”, to “live 102 years”.

Despite these visions, at present Taobao have some problems to slove.

1. Yahoo shares 39 percent of Alibaba company. Yahoo shares is more than Alibaba management shares, which has threatened the status of Ma.
2. Back to say the big logistics plan. May it work to Check and balance Third Party Logistics? May it approved carrier to improve logistics service level? It depends on Taobao.