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China B2B to Drive Asian E-Business
A more prosperous China is poised to drive the growth of Internet commerce in Asia over the next few years as more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) shift their businesses to online marketplaces.
According to officials at e-commerce systems provider Ariba, the Chinese mainland's online business-to-business market could be worth US$125 billion by 2005.
The optimistic outlook was outlined on Monday, as Sparkice, a Beijing-based developer of Chinese online trading communities, announced its partnership with global e-commerce collaboration developer Ariba.
Sparkice chairman and chief executive Edward Zeng described the partnership as "a formidable combination of resources", that will link global buyers with mainland-based suppliers.
Before launching Sparkice, Mr Zeng was best known for his chain of mainland Internet cafes.
Founded in 1996, Sparkice currently counts more than 100��000 suppliers - mostly SMEs - in China. The suppliers trade globally in consumer products such as apparel, food and beverage, furniture and furnishings, and office equipment and supplies.
"Greater China is a critical region for the success of Ariba in the Asia-Pacific. A lot of our customers are eager to get connected to a vast network of suppliers in China��" said Mukesh Aghi, Ariba's senior vice-president for Asia-Pacific operations.
He predicted that Ariba would announce new alliances in the mainland within the next 60 days.
Silicon Valley-based Ariba��which counts more than 150 online trading exchanges powered by its technology, has focused on pushing its e-marketplace systems in Hong Kong and the mainland, while offering mostly electronic business-to-business purchasing technology in Taiwan.
Ariba is powering the mainland firm's ability to rapidly deploy business-to-business e-commerce through its Marketplace and Dynamic Trade applications.
The company now has the ability to interlink with other digital exchanges as well as support higher volumes of online trading.
"We are also enabling auctions and reverse auctions, providing advanced negotiation tools, as well as fulfilment and payment solutions," said
Sparkice president and chief operating officer Johannes Zhou. Ariba officials said the Sparkice alliance also complemented a partnership it forged last year with Los Angeles-based AsiaDemand, which provides Web-enabled trade and logistics services to Chinese companies trading with buyers in the United States.
"We think the combination of our robust technology solutions with Sparkice's years of expertise in the mainland e-commerce market is a winning proposition," said Keith Krach, Ariba's chairman and chief executive.
"Together we can produce significant accomplishments for business-to-business e-commerce in China."
Forrester Research has predicted that e-commerce in the Asia-Pacific will surge to US$1.6 trillion in 2004. Of that amount, more than US$1.5 trillion of the region's total online sales will be linked to the business-to-business e-commerce.
According to Forrester, Asian countries will benefit from local e-commerce development efforts and tight links to international supply chains in a number of key industries.
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