Entrepreneurs gain profit through virtual gold rush
The huge number of Chinese Internet users may be “nothing” to prompt cynics, but such growing Internet population holds a gold mine for budding entrepreneurs like Han Ruotong of Beijing. The 30-year-old former advertising executive quit her well-paying job several years ago and started her online shop selling pets. In stead of dogs and cats, her shop specialized in exotic species, like Angora rabbits and chinchillas.
Although sharing a tight 14 sq m office with a dozen of animals in cages, Han never regrets. She just wants to run her own business.
Many other people from all walks of life share the same ambition with Han. Because there is no limitation to be a boss; and what you need basically are a personal computer and a mobile phone.
Furthermore, some reports showed that this kind of new gold rush is not blind speculation. According to the China Online Shopping Survey compiled by the China Internet Network Information Centre, total online sales in 19 major cities in China amounted to 16.2 billion yuan in the first six months of 2008, and China has now 253 million Internet users. Another survey by international credit card predicted that by 2010, the number of Internet users will increase to 480 million; and the online transactions in China is expected to surpass Japan and Korea as the NO.1 in Asia.
Han began her business very accidentally. She happened to trade the five chinchillas online and after that, the increasing inquiries from many interested buyers inspired her to start her own business. And the result is better than she expected. Her online shop’s revenue reached an average of 40,000 yuan a month.
She is not the only happy online vendor. Taobao.com had more than 62 million registered members in the first quarter of 2008. Total transaction on auction site reached 18.8 billion yuan. What is more, there are not only individual traders to open online shops, many big companies and multinational companies are also seeking business opportunities on the Internet. Lenovo Group, the world’s fourth-largest PC makers, launched a Taobao online store on Aug 26 to expand its marketing channels and boost its business scale.
Besides C2C and B2B, B+B2C now exist in China. Qeeka.com, as a “B”, set up an e-commerce platform for different suppliers (B) and users (C) aged between 25 and 40. That creates a new online shop mode. It is a bilateral business mode for both sides. The price of group procurements is fairly low for consumers since group shopping eliminates the sales link and results in cost reduction for suppliers; on the other hand, suppliers are able to get full amount of cash while they have to accept divided payment from supermarkets and project contractors.
The founder of Qeeka said, “The monthly fee for keeping an online shop is from 1,000 to 10,000 yuan, and the annual income for online shop will be over 30 million yuan fro Qeeka.” The group platform sales volume reached about 300 million yuan in 2007 and is expected to exceed 1 billion yuan this year.
Li Xin, a 45 years old salesman in Shanghai, told that he was preparing to decorate his new house this month, and he and his wife made many inquiries at decorating retail supermarkets. Finally, he tried an online group shopping, which saved him almost 15,000 yuan on ceramic tiles and the kitchen sink. As a non-online shopping experienced person, he felt it was a very good thing. He just felt much younger and more fashionable when talking about online shopping with his son.
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