Blog about Virtual Assistant, Outsourcing, KPO, BPO and China

A long-term strategic partnership has been established between China’s B2B e-commerce portal alibaba.com and Infomedia, India’s largest yellow pages and special interest publishing company.

Alibaba’s net profit rose to 967.8 million yuan, more than quadrupling that of last year. Currently, the Hang-zhou based company has nearly 300,000 paid members, possessing about a 70% market share of the online B2B trade in China.

And in India, since the launching of its Indian channel last December, around 20,000 Indian companies have signed up each month for it. The number of Alibaba’s members has already exceeded 400,000.

The partnership of the two sides will see the integration of the power of traditional print publishing with online media and e-commerce to provide India’s small and medium-sized companies with a one-stop solution for global and domestic trade.

“India is a priority market for Alibaba’s global plans and Infomedia will help provide on-ground support including sales, marketing and customer service,” said the Alibaba CEO Wei Zhe.

“We believe the alliance will help Alibaba become a major online trade platform in India by the end of 2008,” Wei said.

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Software giant Microsoft announced its plan to invest $280 million to build a research and development center in Beijing and significantly expand its research team in the country.

Microsoft started its first R&D center in China as early as 1995. And the company now has research facilities in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Last year, Microsoft invested about $280 million in its R&D activities in China and recruited 1,000 new employees to its China R&D Group.

At present, the company has 3,000 research staff in the country, with 1,500 full-time employees and another 1,500 working on a project basis. And it will double the number of its full-time research employees in China to 3,000 in the next three years.

The new R&D campus will be able to accommodate 5,000 employees, making it Microsoft’s largest research center outside the US when it is completed in 2010.

These investments are said to have helped Microsoft win support from the Chinese government and boosted sales in the Chinese market. Fortune Magazine estimated last year that its revenue from China would exceed $700 million last year, about 1.5 percent of Microsoft’s global sales.

China also has the world’s largest number of Internet and mobile phone users, offering what is believed to be huge opportunities for IT companies.

With the rapid development of the internet, BPOVIA Ltd based in China is always glad to offer our virtual assistant services to businessmen around the world looking for opportunities in the Chinese market.

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BPO, China Business, China Business News, China Outsourcing, China Virtual Assistant, Internet and Hi-Tech, Investment China Beijing, BPOVIA, China, internet, investment, Microsoft, R&D

Online clothing retailer PPG said it has plans to list in the US toward the end of this year or in early 2009, either on the New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ.

Relying on the Internet and call centers, the company applies an e-commerce and traditional retail business model, which helped PPG to save the cost of maintaining retail outlets and attract $80 million in investment from TDF, JAFCO Asia, KPCB, and San Shan Capital Partners. Like Dell in the computer industry, its strong point lies in direct sales and 80% of its orders are over 250 yuan.

PPG’s biggest expense is advertising. The retailer spent 230 million yuan on advertising last year—about a third of its 700 million yuan in sales revenue. Its advertisement covers almost every possible channel—newspapers, TV, magazine and direct mail. Last year its ad budget shrank when management deemed market recognition was satisfactory.

“Now, we’re focusing our marketing strategy on branding,” said David Lee, its chairman. “We want to be another Gap.”
Instead of opening retail outlets, the company will strive to expand its business to second-and-third-tier cities through an intensive ad campaign in those markets. “We want to reach most cities across the nation in the next two years,” said Lee.

Besides, PPG is also looking for opportunities to explore the overseas market. It has set up a US subsidiary in late March and next stop will be Europe and beyond.

Like PPG, BPOVIA Ltd based in China also works through the internet and opens its door to all those who are looking for virtual assistants to tap the Chinese market.

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Microsoft China plans to set up an IT training center in Wuxi, one of China’s top 15 most economically developed cities, to prepare skilled professionals for the city’s emerging IT industry.

Microsoft China and the Wuxi government have signed a deal to establish the training program. According to the deal, the city’s hi-tech zone Wuxi New District will provide infrastructure for the training center and Microsoft technical platform and program. The center is expected to give professional IT training to 10,000 students each year.

Wuxi, with its solid industry foundation and overseas business network, plans to have 100 companies providing international outsourcing services and exporting software by 2010. Each will employ at least 2,000 staff and will have an export volume of $30 million. And the city has been active in seeking cooperation with foreign outsourcing companies.

“We are delighted to have Microsoft as a partner to help us in our endeavor,” said Yang Weize, Party chief in Wuxi. “We believe Microsoft’s experience will help us develop a large pool of IT professionals in Wuxi,” he said. And Zhang Yaqin, head of Microsoft China said the company is willing to help Wuxi to achieve its outsourcing goal.

Currently, outsourcing is a big trend for business development. As a professional company providing virtual assistants for businesses, BPOVIA Ltd is always your source in China.

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Linda Sanford, the senior vice president of International Business Machines Corp said they has chosen Shanghai as the headquarters for growth markets, which conclude Asia Pacific(excluding Japan), Latin American and REMA (Russia, Eastern Europe, Middle Europe and Africa) and will add more “responsibilities” into China.

IBM has set up its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai since 2004. In addition, it has set up payment, outsource service-delivery, procurement and software development centers in the city. Due to the different market conditions and requirements between growth and mature markets, IBM needs to manage through different ways in different markets.

IBM is transforming to provide high-value knowledge-based services and on the way to become globally integrated.

You can look for any information about IBM’s new development and service on BPOVIA’s blog.

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Intel Corp, the world’s largest computer chip maker, signed a deal with SMG, one of China’s most influential media and entertainment groups, to develop Internet TV.

Intel will invest $12 million in Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and provide technical support under a 2005 agreement. Its multicore platform will be used to consolidate new Internet technologies, integrate innovative user experiences and visual interfaces and develop the next-generation video platform using virtualization technology.

“Global demand for Internet TV, or broadband online TV, is increasing rapidly due to the proliferation of Internet technology,” said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital, the company’s venture investment arm. “Intel is delighted to cooperate with SMG to develop the broadband online TV platform in China. Collaboration with Intel will stimulate the innovation and development of Chinese new media,” he said.

The new media market which includes interactive TV, mobile phone TV and IPTV, is expected to take off in China. The number of subscribers is expected to soar to nearly 35 million by 2012, according to CCID Consulting.

“The proliferation of the Internet makes it easier for us to do business with overseas clients. We are in a position to get an easy access to foreign businessmen looking for domestic outsourcing companies. As a professional virtual assistant provider, we always welcome contacts and tasks from old and new clients alike,” said James Huang, CEO and founder of BPOVIA Ltd based in China.

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Taiwan computer giant ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (ASUS) has recently laid the foundation in Jiangxi Province, worth 3 billion Yuan (428.6 million US dollars).

ASUS, a technology-oriented company is well known for high-quality and innovative technology. It has a global staff of up to 100,000 and the revenue reached 6.9 billion US dollars last year.

According to company sources, the factory in Ji’an City will produce copper wire yarn and computer accessories in the first stage, and in the future produce main boards and assemble notebook computers.

With the rapid development and huge potential market, Taiwan has eyed more investment on the mainland. Meanwhile, Taiwan has attracted many mainland investors for its geographic location and complete industry chain. The business communication is and will grow at a fast pace.

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EMC Corp, the world’s largest data storage company, set up a 50-50 joint venture with Hong Kong-listed Digital China in March this year, aiming to tap into the country’s booming IT market.

The new venture—EMC’s first in Asia—is expected to provide information infrastructure solutions, services and support for the Chinese market. It will also help the two sides to attract partners in the information storage sector.

EMC, by shifting to software sales over the years, has now become an information management company. It planned to invest $1 billion in China before 2012 to gain a larger share in the country’s data storage market as China has witness explosive growth in websites and internet content.

According to American IT research firm IDC, the total storage capacity in China will grow 30-fold from 132 petabytes in 2004 to nearly 4,000 petabytes in 2011.

EMC is also expecting the new venture to help serve the needs of its customers in China since Digital China, the country’s largest IT products distributor and systems integrator, has been trying to enhance its IT services business.

“This is about how we grow in the years ahead in China,” said Steven Leonard, president of EMC Asia Pacific-Japan. “China is now one of the world’s fastest growing and strategically important markets.”

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Alibaba.com is the largest business-to-business website, which started out helping millions of Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises sell their goods on the internet.

Last year, the company’s revenue grew 58.6% to 2.16 billion yuan and its net profit surged 340% to 968 million yuan, which was attributed to the rise in the number of the company’s paying members and their increased averaged online consumption.

Despite the current economic slowdown at the global scale, Alibaba.com expected to see dynamic growth this year. “I think we will maintain fast growth this year because people in difficulties tend to diversify their product sourcing and supply in order to reduce risks,” said Wei Zhe, CEO of Alibaba.com.

According to Alibaba.com, 72% of the company’s revenue came from online trade between China and foreign countries and only 28% from trade within China. Revenue from domestic trade is expected to rise as China’s internal demands grow. Meanwhile, the company also has plans to open a joint venture with Softbank in Japan this year and increase its business presence in Europe and India to seek greater international opportunities.

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The world’s fourth largest computer maker Lenovo Group recently unveiled its notebook ThinkPad X300 in Beijing, hoping to regain ThinkPad’s reputation and compete with HP, Dell, Acer and Apple.

Initially introduced by IBM in 1992, ThinkPad remained the longest lasting design franchise in computing history and was lapped up by businesses and traveling users. In 2005, the brand was sold to Lenovo along with IBM’s PC division due to poor financial returns.

In the past three years, Lenovo managed to increase the annual revenue of IBM’s previous loss-making business from $3 billion to $17 billion and has nearly tripled its profits. And it feels urgent to release innovative products like IBM to prove its ability.

“The launch of the new product has proved that we are capable of making breakthrough innovations and setting new standards for the industry,” said Yang Yuanqing, chairman of Lenovo Group.

According to Lenovo’s third-quarter result ended January, its revenue reached $4.6 billion, up 15% compared with the same period of 2006. And the company’s notebook shipments grew 38% annually and sales reached $2.6 billion, accounting for 56% of the total sales.

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