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Price war of words engulfs two Chinese online giants
By Ding Yining |
February 10, 2012, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ALIBABA, operator of China's largest online shopping site Taobao, is involved in renewed battle with another e-commerce giant, 360Buy.com, over prices.
Last week, Etao, an Alibaba Group site that compares online shopping prices to help consumers make choices, released a report that claimed 360Buy raised its prices on certain products by as much as 15 percent in October.
That was much higher than the average 5 percent price rise across online shopping products surveyed by the report, it said.
360Buy retaliated with a strongly worded statement calling Etao's report a fabrication and defamation.
"Lifting prices by as much as 15 percent would be suicidal for online shopping sites, and 360Buy could never do that," the company said in the statement.
It added that Alibaba should focus on its own business, including the eradication of unauthorized products, instead of releasing false price reports.
Etao responded by saying that its report covered more than two-thirds of 360Buy products, and the price increases were there for all to see and assess.
Etao also said its report was compiled from a survey of prices on more than 5,000 online shopping sites, including major ones such Dangdang.com and Amazon.cn.
"No distinctions were made during the compilation of the report because all prices were recorded by our computer system," it said in a separate statement.
Dual standards
Given the corporate coziness between Etao and Taobao Mall, it may be hard to convince people of the fairness of the report.
It does strike some people as suspicious that Etao's report seemed to single out 360Buy in an accompanying chart comparing its prices with those of Dangdang and Amazon.cn.
The latter two sites showed prices changed moderately. "It's also very strange that there was no price change shown at Taobao Mall, which is hardly possible and misleading to consumers," an unidentified industry analyst told 21st Century Business Herald.
Alibaba claims that it is building an open and transparent system for e-commerce sites and consumers, but is it based on dual standards?
As early as 2008, Taobao began blocking Baidu's access to fetch price information and shoppers' comments from Taobao. That bar was regarded by many industry watchers as an effort to maintain Taobao's dominance in the online shopping sector.
It is not the first time Alibaba has collided with 360buy.com. Last year, 360buy used a script on its webpage, called "robots," to block Etao from plucking price and product information.
Etao, however, disregarded the universally respected protocol and continued to include the products and their prices in its search results, saying that the information must be open to one and all.
Etao's front page has undergone huge shift since the site was launched about 18 months ago. It used to be a simple, brief format, with just a search bar in the middle of the page. Nowadays it looks more like a directory, featuring the latest promotions at various independent shopping sites and detailed information about online shopping that goes beyond just price comparisons.
Its advertising billboards are now in all major metro stations as it strives to become the first choice for online shoppers looking for bargains.
Public trust
In my opinion, any third party tracking of prices needs to be fair and impartial. It's a service that is important not only to consumers, but also for business owners trying to figure out what works best in online selling.
If it wants to be regarded as a fair and open search site, as it claims, then Etao must provide reliable price information without favoritism or prejudice.
Considering Etao's close relationship with Alibaba and Taobao, it hardly seems positioned to do that and may in the end fail to win the public trust needed to succeed in competition.
Last week, Etao, an Alibaba Group site that compares online shopping prices to help consumers make choices, released a report that claimed 360Buy raised its prices on certain products by as much as 15 percent in October.
That was much higher than the average 5 percent price rise across online shopping products surveyed by the report, it said.
360Buy retaliated with a strongly worded statement calling Etao's report a fabrication and defamation.
"Lifting prices by as much as 15 percent would be suicidal for online shopping sites, and 360Buy could never do that," the company said in the statement.
It added that Alibaba should focus on its own business, including the eradication of unauthorized products, instead of releasing false price reports.
Etao responded by saying that its report covered more than two-thirds of 360Buy products, and the price increases were there for all to see and assess.
Etao also said its report was compiled from a survey of prices on more than 5,000 online shopping sites, including major ones such Dangdang.com and Amazon.cn.
"No distinctions were made during the compilation of the report because all prices were recorded by our computer system," it said in a separate statement.
Dual standards
Given the corporate coziness between Etao and Taobao Mall, it may be hard to convince people of the fairness of the report.
It does strike some people as suspicious that Etao's report seemed to single out 360Buy in an accompanying chart comparing its prices with those of Dangdang and Amazon.cn.
The latter two sites showed prices changed moderately. "It's also very strange that there was no price change shown at Taobao Mall, which is hardly possible and misleading to consumers," an unidentified industry analyst told 21st Century Business Herald.
Alibaba claims that it is building an open and transparent system for e-commerce sites and consumers, but is it based on dual standards?
As early as 2008, Taobao began blocking Baidu's access to fetch price information and shoppers' comments from Taobao. That bar was regarded by many industry watchers as an effort to maintain Taobao's dominance in the online shopping sector.
It is not the first time Alibaba has collided with 360buy.com. Last year, 360buy used a script on its webpage, called "robots," to block Etao from plucking price and product information.
Etao, however, disregarded the universally respected protocol and continued to include the products and their prices in its search results, saying that the information must be open to one and all.
Etao's front page has undergone huge shift since the site was launched about 18 months ago. It used to be a simple, brief format, with just a search bar in the middle of the page. Nowadays it looks more like a directory, featuring the latest promotions at various independent shopping sites and detailed information about online shopping that goes beyond just price comparisons.
Its advertising billboards are now in all major metro stations as it strives to become the first choice for online shoppers looking for bargains.
Public trust
In my opinion, any third party tracking of prices needs to be fair and impartial. It's a service that is important not only to consumers, but also for business owners trying to figure out what works best in online selling.
If it wants to be regarded as a fair and open search site, as it claims, then Etao must provide reliable price information without favoritism or prejudice.
Considering Etao's close relationship with Alibaba and Taobao, it hardly seems positioned to do that and may in the end fail to win the public trust needed to succeed in competition.
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