Can Alibaba topple the Silicon Valley giants?阿里巴巴可以顛覆矽谷巨頭?

By Ping Wong, Special to CNN
September 16, 2014 -- Updated 1147 GMT (1947 HKT)
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Alibaba's public offering raises questions about the future of tech startups in China
  • To date, very few large Chinese technology companies have emerged
  • Alibaba owes its success to China's high shopping rates and large consumer market
  • Ping Wong believes that China's counterfeit culture is the company's biggest challenge

Editor's note: Ping Wong is an information technology and communications professional with more than 10 years' experience, specializing in business development and marketing in Hong Kong. She is currently Secretary-General of Internet Society Hong Kong. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ping Wong.

(CNN) -- Internet giant Alibaba will soon go public, and its IPO is expected to be one of the biggest the world has seen.

Alibaba, which achieved more than $240 billion in gross merchandise volume last year -- more than that of Amazon and eBay combined -- has become one of the largest technology companies in the world.

That Alibaba is a Chinese company has important implications and begs the question: Will China become the next Silicon Valley, a breeding ground for the next generation of technology giants?

Ping Wong
Ping Wong

Silicon Valley has long led the world in the quality, quantity and diversity of technology startups it incubates. Companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp have flourished under Silicon Valley's mature and complete startup ecosystem, with its open and free market and culture and innovative environment.

The picture is quite different in Asia where thus far, only a few large technology companies have emerged. Alibaba,Tencent and Xiaomi were not nurtured in a Silicon Valley type environment, but they are successful examples from the unique Chinese market.

Opportunities

With more than 1.3 billion people, China is not only the world's largest country, but also its biggest consumer market. Home to a huge number of factories, manufacturers, suppliers and customers, China is also called the "World's Factory." This unique demand and supply environment helps reduce businesses transaction costs and, indirectly, retail prices, creating a world of opportunities for entrepreneurs from China and abroad.

Unless a product is very difficult to duplicate, it is likely to be copied in China.
Ping Wong

Often called the "Amazon of China," Alibaba's business model is in fact completely different from that of the online retail giant. Alibaba's Taobao is not in itself an online shop but an open eCommerce platform where millions of small businesses and suppliers can sell directly to individual or business customers.

Unlike Amazon, which charges commissions on transactions, Alibaba does not incur administrative charges on sellers or buyers; instead, it offers sellers paid advertising opportunities that will allow their products to stand out among the thousands of others on the platform. Alibaba's success stems from its huge traffic and competitive retail prices.

This competitive weapon piggybacks on another factor: Chinese customers are the most active online shoppers in the world, shopping an average of 8.4 times online each month, far outpacing American customers, who shop 5.2 times.

Repeated transactions by these customers contribute significantly to a steady sales volume and to Alibaba's success in China.

Challenges

Opportunities come with challenges. The greatest challenge for entrepreneurs in China is the protection of intellectual property. Taobao is flooded with defective and counterfeit products: 82% of products labeled with the Columbia brand on Taobao are fakes, and the brand has had to get up to 3,000 listings taken down a month.

This is a rather unique problem in China, unlikely to be found in other parts of the world.

China is a separate world where one can thrive only with a good knowledge about the rules of the game.
Ping Wong

Without a strong legal system, copyright infringement is becoming a natural tendency. Unless a product is very difficult to duplicate, it is likely to be copied in China. These skillful and efficient perpetrators make such convincing cloned products that they often surpass the original on many levels. In a way, this is stifling creativity and innovation -- innovations are being copied, rather than respected and protected.

In addition, government policies such as taxation and embargoes may be changed or imposed at anytime, without reasonable explanation and without channels or methods of reverting the decision. Any such unexpected policy changes may have significant impact on businesses, and are interpreted as one of the biggest risk factors of doing business in China.

Despite adequate talent and capital, the closed market prevents local businesses from competing globally. Business owners who are not Chinese or do not have local connections face a much greater risk of failure.

Because of the reasons above, I don't believe it is realistic to compare China to Silicon Valley. Rather, it can be described as "a separate world" where one can thrive only with a good knowledge about the rules of the game.

Alibaba is an example of a company that has achieved a "cultural fit" in China. But whether Alibaba or other homegrown Chinese technology companies can hold their place in the competitive global market, or surpass the Silicon Valley-bred giants, remains to be seen.

阿里巴巴可以顛覆矽谷巨頭?
由平旺,特向美國有線新聞網
2014年9月16日 - 更新1147 GMT(1947 HKT)
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新聞提要
阿里巴巴的公開發售引起了人們對高科技創業公司在中國的未來的問題
迄今為止,很少有中國大型科技公司都出現了
阿里巴巴欠它的成功,中國的高的購物率和龐大的消費市場
黃平認為,中國的仿冒文化是公司面臨的最大挑戰
編者按: 平旺是一家信息技術和通信專業擁有超過10年的經驗,專門在香港的業務發展和市場推廣。她目前是秘書長的香港互聯網協會。發表本評論中的觀點僅為平旺的。
(CNN) -互聯網巨頭阿里巴巴即將上市,而其IPO有望成為最大的世界已經見過。
阿里巴巴,取得了超過240十億的商品交易總額在去年- 超過亞馬遜和eBay的結合-已經成為最大的科技公司之一。
,阿里巴巴是一家中國公司有重要的影響,並引出了一個問題:中國是否會成為下一個矽谷,滋生新一代科技巨頭呢?
黃平
黃平
矽谷一直領先於世界的科技創業孵化它的質量,數量和多樣性。公司如谷歌,Facebook,Twitter和WhatsApp的有矽谷的成熟和完善創業生態系統下蓬勃發展,以其開放,自由的市場,文化和創新環境。
圖片是在亞洲完全不同的地方迄今,只有少數大型科技企業已經出現。阿里巴巴,騰訊和小米沒有孕育了矽谷式的環境,但他們從獨特的中國市場成功的例子。
機遇
有超過13十億人,中國不僅是世界上最大的國家,也是其最大的消費市場。家庭對一個巨大的工廠,製造商,供應商和客戶的數量,中國也被稱為“世界工廠”。這種獨特的需求和供給的環境有助於降低企業的交易成本,並間接,零售價格,創造一個充滿機會的世界,從中國和國外的企業家。
除非產品是非常難以複製,很可能在中國被複製。
黃平

通常被稱為“中國的亞馬遜”,阿里巴巴的商業模式,其實是從網上零售巨頭完全不同。阿里巴巴旗下的淘寶本身不是網店而是一個開放的電子商務平台,讓數以百萬計的小企業和供應商可以直接銷售給個人或企業客戶。
不同於亞馬遜,其中收費佣金交易,阿里巴巴不招致賣方或買方行政事業性收費; 相反,它提供了賣家付費廣告的機會,讓自己的產品脫穎而出的數千人的平台上之間。阿里巴巴的成功源於其巨大的流量和競爭力的零售價格。
這種競爭的武器寄生在另外一個因素:中國的客戶是最活躍的網上購物者,在全球每月平均有8.4次網上購物,遠遠超過美國客戶,誰鋪的5.2倍。
通過這些客戶的重複交易顯著到一個穩定的銷量和阿里巴巴在中國的成功作出貢獻。
挑戰
機會來挑戰。在中國企業家最大的挑戰是知識產權的保護。淘寶上充斥著缺陷和假冒產品:產品標有哥倫比亞品牌在淘寶上82%都是假貨,而該品牌已獲得長達一個月採取降3000目錄。
這在中國是一個比較特殊的問題,不可能在世界上其他地方被發現。
中國是一個獨立的世界,在那裡人們可以只對遊戲規則的良好的知識茁壯成長。
黃平

如果沒有一個強有力的法律制度,著作權侵權已成為一種自然的傾向。除非產品是非常難以複製,則很可能在中國被複製。這些技術過硬,高效的肇事者做出如此有說服力的克隆產品,他們往往超過原有的許多層面。在某種程度上,這是扼殺創造力和創新 - 創新被複製,而不是尊重和保護。
此外,政府的政策,如稅收和禁運可能隨時變更或徵收,無合理解釋,沒有通道或恢復決策的方法。任何此類意外改變政策,可能會對企業顯著影響,並解釋為在中國開展業務的最大的風險因素之一。
儘管有足夠的人才和資金,封閉市場可以防止本地企業從全球競爭。企業主誰是不是中國人,或者沒有本地連接面對失敗的風險要大得多。
由於上述原因,我不相信這是現實的中國比作矽谷。相反,它可以被描述為“一個獨立的世界”裡一次只能提供有關遊戲規則的良好的知識茁壯成長。
阿里巴巴是一個已經在中國實現了“文化適應”是公司的一個例子。不過,阿里巴巴或其他中國本土的科技公司能否保持自己的位置,在競爭激烈的全球市場,或超越矽谷長大的巨人,還有待觀察。

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