Local heroes in an online fight
When Jack Ma, the Chinese internet entrepreneur, visited investors in the US a few months ago, he was taken aback by their sceptical view of his battle with eBay for control of China's market in consumer-to- consumer online auctions.
"Everybody said: 'It sounds like Jack is fighting with Michael Tyson - he has no chance', " recalls Mr Ma, the slightly-built founder and chief executive of e-commerce company Alibaba.com. "I was so disappointed."
But the ebullient Mr Ma is not letting such lack of faith get him down. He says Alibaba's one-year-old consumer auction arm, Taobao.com, is taking the fight to eBay's China unit, Eachnet. And he claims that Taobao already has more users than eBay in China.
The contest between Taobao and eBay in the consumer auction sector reflects a broader battle in China's rapidly emerging online market between the world's biggest internet companies and homegrown competitors.
It is a high-stakes prize-fight. With more than 80m people online, China is already one of the world's most populous internet markets and is still growing at over 30 per cent a year. Many analysts say the country's huge population and rapid economic development are likely to give it a pivotal role in the world wide web's future development.
Underlining international interest in the market, eBay paid $180m for Eachnet, then China's dominant consumer auction website, in a deal completed in 2003.
Yahoo, the US internet portal, has also been active, paying $120m for Chinese language search developer 3721 Network Software last year and setting up a joint venture online auction website with local rival Sina.com.
Meanwhile, Google, the world's most widely-used internet search engine, has launched a Chinese language advertising service and taken a stake in Baidu.com, its Chinese counterpart.
The technological and financial resources commanded by such companies make them formidable opponents, as Mr Ma well knows.
The former English teacher says that, over the last year, eBay has been willing to spend heavily to seal exclusive advertising deals with China's most visited websites, forcing Taobao.com to rely heavily on word-of-mouth campaigns and clever publicity to attract new users. "They blocked all our advertising," he says.
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But Mr Ma says that international internet companies are prone to making three mistakes in China - underestimating the differences between the local market and the US market, incurring higher costs than local rivals and "going global" too quickly.
"The cost for eBay and international companies to come to China is so high," says Mr Ma. "They spend $100m, we spend $10m, but the effect is the same." Low costs and strong cashflow at its parent Alibaba mean Taobao can rapidly develop a customer base by offering its services free, he says.
It helps that many Chinese internet users stick to local brands. Yahoo's local portal is overshadowed by the locally run but US-listed Sina and its rivals Sohu.com and Netease, which have pioneered a highly profitable mix of services such as mobile telephone messaging and hugely popular fantasy role-playing games.
Google's investment in Baidu reflected the Chinese company's unmatched popularity among local users.
Chinese online retailing is currently dominated by local "would-be Amazons" Dangdang.com and Joyo.com, which sell goods ranging from books and video discs to sex toys and car wax.
The success of local companies reflects an ability to understand the tastes of local internet users while also working around such difficulties as the very limited use of credit cards.
To be sure, it is far too early to write off the foreigners. Some analysts say their deep pockets will allow them to catch up in the future through further acquisitions. And while the rapid development of Mr Ma's Taobao is impressive, eBay is still handling a greater value of transactions despite charging for its services.
Foreign investment is already a reality for many of China's homegrown champions, through Nasdaq listings and venture capital investments. Alibaba, for example, raised $82m from investors, including Japan's Softbank Corp and Fidelity Investments of the US.
Yet whatever their ownership, Mr Ma is convinced that local roots and local knowledge give China-based companies a big advantage over their international rivals.
"They are the sharks in the ocean, we are the crocodiles in the Yangtze River," he says. "When they fight in the Yangtze River, they will be in trouble. The smell of the water is different."
中国：网络大战的真英雄
几个月前，中国互联网领域的企业家马云（Jack Ma）前往美国，造访了阿里巴巴的投资商。令他大吃一惊的是，几位投资者都认为，如果阿里巴巴要与eBay争夺中国消费者对消费者（C2C）的在线拍卖市场，马云的胜算不大。
马云回忆当时的情况说：“每个人都说，‘听起来，就好比是马云要和迈克?泰森（Michael Tyson）来场拳击赛，他胜出的几率几乎为零。’当时的我，感到非常失望。” 这位身材瘦小的男士便是阿里巴巴电子商务公司的首席执行官。
但总是那么精神抖擞的马云是不会那么容易就丧失信心的。他说，阿里巴巴的个人交易网站淘宝网（Taobao.com）创建已有一年，现正在迎战eBay中国易趣网（Eachnet）。他还声称，淘宝网的用户量已超过了eBay的中国用户数量。
从淘宝网和eBay争夺个人网上拍卖市场的激战中，我们可以看出，中国的电子商务市场正日益突起，而全球最大的网络公司与中国本土的竞争对手间的争夺战也愈演愈烈。
这可是一场真刀真枪的“职业赛”，而且赢家的酬金非常可观。中国现有8000万网民，已成为在线交易人数最多的国家之一，而且交易人数的年增长率也超过了30％。许多分析人士说，中国人口众多，经济发展迅速，在互联网今后的发展中将发挥至关重要的作用。
2003年，eBay以1.8亿美元收购了中国当时最大的个人拍卖网站易趣网。此举反应出国外网络公司对中国市场的浓厚兴趣。
美国的门户网站雅虎（Yahoo）在中国市场上也非常活跃。去年，该网站以1.2亿美元买下中文关键词搜索服务的开发商3721网络软件有限公司，并与其在中国的竞争对手新浪网（Sina.com）联手建立了一家在线拍卖网站。
与此同时，全球使用范围最广的搜索引擎Google也推出了中文广告服务，并收购了百度网站（Baidu.com）的部分股份。百度是中国的一家搜索引擎网站。
这些国外的网络公司在技术上和资金上都有很强的实力，着实不好对付。对此，马云非常清楚。
这位曾当过英语教书匠的首席执行官说，在过去的一年里，eBay不惜花下巨资与中国访问率最高的网站签下合同，要求这些网站不得与淘宝网进行互相推广的活动。此举逼迫淘宝网不得不借助口头广告和其它出奇制胜的宣传方式来吸引新的用户。马云说：“他们几乎封杀了我们所有的广告途径。”
但马云表示，国外的网络公司涉足中国市场后，容易犯三大错误：低估中美两地市场的差异性，成本支出大大高于其中国对手，“全球化”的速度太快。
马云说：“对于eBay和其它国外的网络公司而言，进军中国市场的成本太高。他们要花1亿美元，而我们只需花1000万美元，而且两者的结果是一样的。”马云说，淘宝网的“生父”――阿里巴巴网站不仅运营成本低，而且现金流充裕，这就意味着，淘宝网能提供免费服务，以此大力发展其客户群。
许多中国网民都“坚守”中国的网站。雅虎在中国的门户网站就不及新浪、搜狐和网易。这些网站都开发出了盈利可观的服务内容，如手机短信和相当受欢迎的网络游戏。新浪、搜狐和网易都是中国的门户网站，但新浪已在美国上市。
Google投资百度一事说明，中国网站在中国网民中的受欢迎程度是相当高的。
现在，中国网络零售领域的领头羊是当当网（Dangdang.com）和卓越网（Joyo.com）。网上零售的商品种类繁多，从书籍、碟片、性玩具到车蜡，应有尽有。当当网还被誉为“未来的亚玛逊”。
中国网站的成功说明，他们能了解中国用户的口味，并想出办法解决因中国人很少使用信用卡而带来的问题。
诚然，如果现在就断言国外网站在中国市场难成气候还为时过早。一些分析人士说，国外的网站有着雄厚的资金，通过不断并购，他们在将来很有可能赶超中国的网站。虽然马云旗下的淘宝网发展迅猛，来势汹汹，但eBay的网络交易量不减反而还大幅增加，尽管它的收费政策依然没有改变。
许多中国本土的网站都通过在纳斯达克上市或风险资本投资吸纳海外资金。比如，阿里巴巴就已从日本的软银（Softbank Corp）和美国的富达投资（Fidelity Investments）等国外投资者处募集了8200万美元。
但不论这些投资者占有多大的股份，马云坚信，植根本土市场、了解本土市场能给中国网站公司以极大的竞争优势。
马云说：“国外网络公司是大海里的鲨鱼，而我们则是长江里的鳄鱼。一旦鲨鱼游到了长江，它们就会碰上麻烦。因为，这里的水已经不同了。”
