韦氏观察

E-traders expand their Asian borders
By Kathrin Hille,in Beijing;Robin Harding,in Tokyo
译者/管婧

Asia’s leading e-commerce companies are racing to support cross-border sales to consumers in a move that could bring a new dimension to regional trade.

Softbank and Taobao, the retail and consumer site of the Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba, are set to announce a deal next week under which Taobao will enable Chinese vendors to sell on Yahoo Japan. Softbank owns large stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.

亚洲主要的电子商务公司正竞相支持面向消费者的跨境销售，此举可能给地区间贸易带入一个全新领域。

软银(Softbank)与淘宝(Taobao)将于下周公布一项协议，根据该协议，淘宝将允许中国卖家在雅虎日本(Yahoo Japan)网站上销售商品。淘宝是中国电子商务集团阿里巴巴(Alibaba)旗下的消费者零售网站。软银在阿里巴巴和雅虎日本均持有大量股权。

Meanwhile, Rakuten, the largest Japanese e-commerce company, is extending its export service for Japanese merchants to let users of its Taiwanese site sell back into Japan.

“Now we have a system – a service from Japan – we feel we can do the same in Taiwan, Thailand, China and other countries where we going to start,” said Kentaro Hyakuno, the head of Rakuten’s global business division.

与此同时，日本第一大电子商务公司乐天市场(Rakuten)也在扩展面向日本商户的出口服务，允许台湾网站用户向日本出售商品。

“我们目前拥有一套体系——来自日本的服务模式——我们觉得在台湾、泰国、中国大陆和其它我们准备开展业务的国家和地区，我们能提供同样的体系，”乐天市场全球业务部主管Kentaro Hyakuno表示。

The development highlights how Asia’s biggest internet companies are looking for growth overseas as they begin to saturate their home markets.

Both Taobao and Rakuten operate online shopping malls through which small vendors can sell to businesses and consumers. Rakuten’s Japanese marketplace has more than 30,000 vendors offering 47m items. Unlike Amazon of the US, Rakuten does not sell goods itself.

Taobao’s tie-up with Yahoo Japan will be the first time it has dealt with consumers outside the Chinese cultural sphere. So far, its only users outside the mainland have been in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

This foray is just one part of Alibaba’s increasingly aggressive push for global expansion.

At the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, the group adjusted its pricing system to draw thousands of vendors from the US and Europe to its online marketplace for business between companies.

Rakuten will enter the Chinese e-commerce market this year in a joint venture with Baidu, China’s largest search engine, and will aim to start two-way trade between its Japanese and Chinese sites later.

Rakuten will own 51 per cent of the venture and Baidu 49 per cent.

Cross-border trade entails helping small merchants with languages, logistics, customs documentation and international payments.

这些进展凸显出亚洲最大的一些互联网企业正寻求海外增长，因为其国内市场已开始饱和。

淘宝和乐天都运营着在线购物商城，小型卖家可以在这里向企业和消费者销售商品。乐天的日本商城拥有逾3万户卖家，提供着4700万种商品。与美国的亚马逊(Amazon)不同，乐天自己并不销售产品。

淘宝与雅虎日本的合作，将是前者第一次与中华文化空间以外的消费者打交道。迄今，淘宝在大陆以外的用户仅限于香港、澳门和台湾。

此番初次尝试，只是阿里巴巴势头日增的全球扩张行动的一部分。

2008年金融危机爆发之际，阿里巴巴调整了定价体系，目的是将成千上万的欧美卖家吸引到自己的企业在线交易市场。

乐天与中国最大的搜索引擎百度(Baidu)成立了一家合资企业，将于今年进军中国电子商务市场，并打算稍后在其日本与中国网站上开通双向交易服务。

乐天将持有合资企业51%的股份，百度则持股49%。

开展跨境交易服务，意味着要在语言、物流、客户建档和国际支付等方面为小型商户提供帮助。