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Baidu launches e-business campaign in Shanghai

By Chen Qide (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-09-26 16:07

Baidu ends its nationwide e-business roadshow in Shanghai today before it starts its online shopping business.

"Choosing the city as the last stop of the roadshow is Baidu's strategy, for Shanghai is considered as the country's most biggest market for online shopping and e-business," said Ge Lina, a spokeswoman from Baidu.com Co Ltd.

Ge said the Baidu e-business platform, which is designed to operate soon, will add colour to the city's online shopping market.

"Meanwhile, Shanghai's huge market will provide a great potential for Baidu's development," she said.

Local e-commerce insiders said Shanghai has been the dragonhead to lead China's e-business market in these years. Its e-business sales volume exceeded 240 billion yuan in 2007, accounting for 20 per cent of the country's total.

Statistics showed that 70 per cent of the city's enterprises established websites or e-business platforms in 2006, with one-third gaining a sales volume of 100 million yuan.

Li Mingyuan, general manager of Baidu E-Business Department, said Baidu e-business will focus on online shopping which will be a stimulus to the local market.

A survey of China's online shopping market found that Shanghai had 4.08 million online shoppers in 2007, who consumed online goods valued at 11.8 billion yuan.

Li believed that Shanghai's online shopping will "become a great stimulus to the commercial development in other regions."

At the roadshow in Shanghai, several hundreds of purchasers from the city and nearby regions showed strong interests in Baidu's new e-business platform, seeking co-operation with the company.

The e-business campaign which started in Beijing was involved in the cities including Ningbo of Zhejiang Province, Guangzhou of Guangdong Province, Nanjing of Jiangsu Province, Wuhan of Hubei Province, and Shanghai.

"The campaign will extend to the country's other regions to win more customers," Li said.