B2C in China is big business, and it’s a big business that Alibaba’s Tmall is currently kind of dominating. Taking a gander at the chart below might be intimidating for anyone running a B2C site in China that isn’t Tmall, but it doesn’t phase Amazon China’s CEO Wang Hanhua. In an interview with Southern Metropolis, he said that B2C is a marathon, not a sprint:
I’m most concerned with whether or not you’ve prepared for the marathon, whether or not you will be the final victor. When there are three to five companies left in the market at the end, will you be one of them?
Wang’s lack of fear isn’t entirely misplaced. True, Amazon China currently commands a paltry 2.2 percent of the market (by total revenue share, according to these numbers). But that giant block of “others” — hundreds of tiny sites that command only fractions of a percentage point of the market — indicates that the market is likely to consolidate and fluctuate in the coming years.
Wang says that Amazon China hasn’t yet “reached its peak” — which of course is what any good CEO would say — but personally, I’m hoping he’s right. Amazon China doesn’t offer the selection of some other online B2C malls, but it’s easy-to-navigate customer service and the fact that it allows payment by COD for all items (yes, some other sites do this too) has made it my personal favorite B2C site, so I’m hoping it sticks around.
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