Change in the market
In the third quarter this year, Tmall led the domestic B2C market with a share of 46.8 percent, followed by 360buy with 21.5 percent and Suning with 3.8 percent, according to data released by Hangzhou-based China E-commerce Research Center.
Tmall has 60,000 to 70,000 sellers, while 360buy told the Global Times in an e-mail on November 1 that it expects to see a total of 10,000 sellers by the end of 2012.
As the first and biggest open platform, Tmall accounts for many big sellers' major online sales. Hongdou had sales of 200,000 yuan during the first month after opening a store on 360buy in March last year, and monthly sales of 130,000 yuan half a year later. But it expects sales of 50 million yuan just from Tmall's Singles' Day promotion this year, the Sina report said.
However, with more vendors opening stores both on Tmall and 360buy, the latter's continuous growth has posed a threat to the former.
Tmall can get network traffic from Taobao and Etao, which are also owned by parent company Alibaba, so its traffic is about five times that of 360buy. This is the biggest advantage for Tmall, but it also means that the company can charge high fees from vendors, Lu said.
Stable technology, a data system and management of third parties are among Tmall's strengths, and it will take a long time for 360buy to match them, he noted.
However, 360buy's self-built delivery system is attractive to consumers, said Lu, and the company's recent takeover of third-party payment company Chinabank Payments is expected to be a good complement to the firm's overall industrial chain.
A vendor of medical devices told the Global Times on condition of anonymity that he opened a store on Taobao Mall (now Tmall) in 2010 and one on 360buy early this year. He said that despite opening the store on 360buy later, he now has sales on 360buy of more than 300,000 yuan each month, much more than the sales he gets with Tmall.
"There are too many sellers for all categories of products on Tmall, and buyers have little loyalty. There are more opportunities for us on 360buy," he said.
The B2C market has also seen a lot of changes in recent months. Tencent bought 51buy.com to integrate with its buy.qq.com business. Suning acquired mother and baby product seller Redbaby in September, while more vertical B2C websites opened stores on Tmall.
These changes indicate that rather than operating independently, more specialist B2C websites will be integrated into the dominant platforms due to high operating costs. Otherwise, they will go bankrupt, said Li Chengdong, an independent e-commerce analyst.
But even though growth of the open platforms will continue, other types of e-commerce firms still have chances in the competitive market, such as vertical B2C firms that have unique characteristics like home furnishings website jia.com, Li said.
Landmark building should respect the public's feeling
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