360Buy recently crawled its way out of a price war that started with some Weibo shit-talking and ended with 360Buy getting spanked by the government for committing fraud. Plus, it has been getting smacked around by Alibaba. But apparently there are no hard feelings, because 360Buy confirmed yesterday that it is developing a third-party advertisement platform seemingly inspired by Alibaba’s Taobao Express.
It’s not clear yet when 360Buy’s platform will be released, what payment will be like, or exactly how the thing will work; 360Buy is still in the process of researching and developing it. But from what 360Buy reps have said, it sounds a lot like Taobao Express, the Alibaba advertising platform that helps sellers market their products to users. That service, now split into the separate services Taobao Express and Tmall Express, has become a significant source of revenue for Alibaba. It certainly makes sense that 360Buy would want to replicate that formula.
And thanks to Taobao Express’s success, 360Buy’s ad platform will likely have plenty of interested sellers. One merchant on both sites told Sina Tech:
We tried Taobao Express and the results were not bad, so when the time comes we will probably also try promotional ads on 360Buy.
With 360Buy reportedly under some financial pressure, the added income could be a lifesaver. Although no release date for the ad platform has been announced, we wouldn’t be surprised to see it pretty soon. The company will also reportedly be expanding into games, again with the hope of improving the look of its financials. It’s not clear just how big a financial hole the company is in, but it certainly seems to be grasping at every potential revenue stream it can imagine.
[via Sina Tech]
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