What They’re Saying About E-Commerce at Disrupt Beijing [LIVE BLOG]

This is a part of our TechCrunch Disrupt 2011 event coverage.

#11:03: OK, we’re off to the next panel, which is on ecommerce. Greenbox’s Wu Fangfang, Ye Haifeng of Mbaobao, Lu Dong of La Miu, and moderated by Bill Bishop.

#11:07: Why is ecommerce just now really taking off in China? Because first, it took a while to build the social infrastructure necessary to support it, and it also took a while for customers to be able to get used to the idea of buying things online.

#11:11: Bill Bishop asks about Taobao and how to survive without them in China ecommerce. Panelists talking about how in China it’s possible to cooperate with Taobao and still have your own brand. “We go where the users are” says Fangfang Wu of Greenbox. Since Taobao has so many users, it makes sense to go there to build a brand.

#11:13: Lu Dong: “Without Taobao there is no ecommerce in China.” Taobao is trying to be the engine, the ecommerce engine, that is behind retailers. So they try to serve customers best, whether via Taobao or elsewhere.

#11:14: Where are you spending your marketing dollars? Also, ad rates are going up, so how do you move to a less marketing-oriented business? Ye Haifeng says they (Mbaobao) don’t spend a ton on branding.

#11:15: Does Baidu [advertising] work well for you? Ye: Yes, of course. But their prices are going up pretty fast, right? Ye: Yes, true.

#11:16: Wu Fangfang says Greenbox also puts a lot of effort into getting repeat customers. Bill Bishop says his daughters love looking at what’s on Greenbox, so they’re doing a good job.

#11:19: u Dong (La Miu) says ads are going up, way way up, all across the board. New customer acquisition is important but advertising isn’t the only way to do that. We use Renren, QQ, Weibo, etc. to accrue new customers as well. Also have done 8 short films, posted on Youku, as viral ads. One of these videos got over a million hits in a week. And also have developed a social game to try to generate traffic. So, there are lots of creative ways to avoid doing (traditional) advertising.

#11:24: Bill Bishop: But with investment funds drying up, how can ecommerce companies keep up their levels of spending? Ye: We’re cutting costs in some areas. Wu: it’s not that the regular market is bad. The investment market is bad, but as long as people are still buying things, she (and Greenbox) is not too worried about it. Says their business model is healthy, and “having too much money isn’t necessarily a good thing” anyway.

#11:26: Wu, continuing: This might even be good, as these problems could hurt our competitors. Lu agrees: We’re not really ecommerce, we’re all specialty retailers with an online sales channel, so they’re not too worried about the investment environment. ‘There’s no cooling in the consumer market or China’s economy, so there’s no cooling down for our business.’

#11:28: Bill Bishop: Is there an Amazon of China? Do these sites (360buy, Dangdang, etc.) have a model that will allow them to ever make money like Amazon does in the US, or should investors be investing in companies like yours? Ye: There’s a big difference between the environment there and here, things are done differently in China.

#11:30: Wu: There’s a lot that we can learn from Amazon and its successes. China has its own ecommerce, environment, yes, but we should still look at Amazon’s success in the US as a model.