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As the Chinese eCommerce sector runs along at a rapid pace, it is not surprising that Baidu has launched an online shopping mall in China in partnership with Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce giant. This new site is called Lekutian (meaning ‘Happy Cool Day’), which will compete with the established Alibaba Group's Taobao.com – the biggest online retail network in China, currently holding a 75% market share (Analysys International).
The collaboration hopes to bring together Baidu’s expert internet marketing knowledge with Rakuten’s e-commerce background to formulate the ultimate online shopping mall for the people of China. 60% of internet users in China use search engines for shopping endeavours, and Baidu holds 72.9% of the search engine market share there, so they have a good starting block.
Rakuten and Baidu are investing $50 million over the next three years in the new website, which currently features about 2,000 merchants, including many well-known local and international brands. Clothing, electronics, home appliances and cosmetics are predicted to be the best sellers. Lekutian has taken a leaf from Alibaba’s book though, by also operating a B2B model, which will allow businesses to buy from suppliers on the site as well as sell to consumers.
This is Baidu’s second attempt at online retail; the company have previously entered in China’s e-commerce market by launching its own shopping platform called Youa in 2008. However, it only holds 0.11 percent of the online retail market.
Written on Thursday, 21 October 2010 19:42 by Matt McDougall