时事资讯:阿里巴巴在美启动广告宣传

【英文原文】

Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.com Inc. will on Monday launch its first major marketing campaign in the U.S., as it searches for new growth during the global recession.

The $30 million campaign, focused primarily on the U.S. but which will also appear in Europe and the Middle East, aims to introduce U.S. entrepreneurs to Alibaba.com's English-language site. The site offers entrepreneurs materials to make everything from wedding dresses to gadgets and sell the products back to other businesses.

The multi-month campaign will target small business owners with success stories of an individual who started an oven mitt business and other entrepreneurs who made it big by sourcing materials through Alibaba.com. Ads carrying the slogan 'Find it. Make it. Sell it' will run in print magazines like Fast Company and across the Web on sites like CNN Money, said Kelly Sang, general manager of Alibaba.com Americas.

The company has also purchased television spots for the campaign on CNBC and on the ABC television show Shark Tank, which premieres Sunday, she said.

The U.S. push is Alibaba.com's latest attempt to broaden its business beyond China, where it is one of the largest online Web sites targeted at businesses and a well-known Internet brand. Alibaba Group, which also owns a Chinese online payment service and online retail site Taobao, spun off its flagship Alibaba.com business to the public in 2007.

Since then, Alibaba.com's revenue─which is based on subscriptions from suppliers who list items ranging from fabrics to toys on the service─has grown to 3 billion yuan, or $439 million, in 2008. Profits are tightening amid the recession, however.

Yahoo Inc., owns a stake in the Alibaba Group, and is also a significant shareholder in Alibaba.com.

Alibaba.com has had an English-language international site to complement its Chinese marketplace since its founding a decade ago. Today, the majority of its revenue comes from that international business, which hosts a large number of Chinese suppliers. But it has been slow to grow in the U.S. As of March, Alibaba.com had 1.3 million U.S. registered users, compared with 8.6 million total users, according to the company. Alibaba.cn, its Chinese site, had 32 million registered users.

Ms. Sang acknowledges the site has yet to establish a solid brand in the U.S., where entrepreneurs gravitate toward eBay Inc. despite its different business model. While eBay targets consumers looking to buy or sell a specific product, Alibaba matches suppliers with wholesalers, an approach modeled after tradeshows, which are pervasive in China. Rather than brokering transactions, Alibaba charges suppliers for listing items and for extra promotion, leaving them to seal the transaction off the site.

While it doesn't make money by having more U.S. users browsing the site, Ms. Sang says going after U.S. users is important for attracting more paying suppliers, who hail from hundreds of countries. 'The U.S. buyer market is one of our most important,' she said.

Appealing to U.S. small business users could be tough. International Internet companies have poor track records of unseating homegrown Internet brands and the size of the niche Alibaba is targeting remains unclear. Despite the different business models, many self-made entrepreneurs are satisfied making bulk purchases and sales to consumers on eBay.

In addition to the ad campaign, Alibaba is also reaching out to U.S. users with training videos, contests and events and business development deals. Earlier this year, the company struck a promotional partnership with FedEx Corp., offering FedEx customers help using the site in exchange for FedEx giving Alibaba users a discount.

To support the push, the company has increased the U.S. staff of Alibaba.com to 17, up from five employees last year, and will expand its Santa Clara, Calif., office further in 2010.

The new U.S. ad campaign was designed with Traction, an ad agency in San Francisco. Similar versions will run in Europe and the Middle East. Ms. Sang says her goal for the advertising campaign is to increase the number of U.S. users who have a strong awareness of the Alibaba brand by 10% in the U.S. this year and to increase traffic from certain demographics the campaign is targeting by around 20%.