Alibaba and the Forty Reasons You Should Be Paying Attention to the Worlds Biggest E-Commerce Company. Alibaba may still be a mystery to many of you, but it’s closer than you think, and while ebooks have yet to appear on their list of projects, they are investing heavily in other digital media, and impossible to think they will ignore our sector. Alibaba have just coughed up $120 million in a a US games company. The aim is to sell the games back home in China, but only a matter of time before Alibaba starts competing elsewhere. Not least where you are. In fact, it already is. Alibabas IPO could be as little as six weeks away. Not sure how much say they have in the timing, but the nearer Amazons Q3 results (which will be the worst in Amazons history) the better for Alibaba. A reminder that Alibaba is THE largest e-commerce company in the world. Forget all the crap about how Amazon is the biggest. Alibaba is literally bigger than Amazon and eBay combined. It has a payments arm, Alipay, that is bigger than Paypal and Square combined. Alibaba has a beta sales site already live in the US - 11main - and while that wont be rising to challenge Amazons US dominance any time soon, dont underestimate it. Because Alibaba has been in America a lot longer than you might think. As a consumer the name may be meaningless to you, but if you are a merchant selling imported electronics and other goods on eBay or indeed Amazon you probably know Alibaba rather well. Because Alibaba is where most of that stuff comes from. Some of you may be familiar with the UC Browser. Its not uncommon in the USA, and is very popular in places as far afield as Russia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Its the most popular third-party browser in India. Guess whos behind it... I could list here some of the many, many arms Alibaba has, but it would be easier to list what it isnt into. Here to say that just two of its many ventures, Tmall and Taobao, brought in three times more money for Alibaba last year than Amazons total global revenue. And unlike Amazon it made humungous profits on it. Its hard to exaggerate the long-term impact Alibaba is going to have on e-commerce over the next few years as it broadens its global portfolio, but I think it no exaggeration to say the biggest single factor driving Amazons increasingly ferocious clampdown on suppliers, while desperately throwing money it doesnt have at any and every project it can, is Alibaba. Nothing anti-Amazon here. These are simple facts. Amazon is facing very difficult few years and as it struggles to keep shareholders on board the clamp-down on benefits to content-providers, the push in prices, and the need to brush aside the minnow-like indie authors in favour of the big money from mainstream publishers will increase. When Amazon’s investors start jumping ship for the new shiny that is Alibaba this fall then things will inevitably get unpleasant. Alibaba isn’t into ebooks yet (it won’t be long, I assure you) and Amazon will no doubt remain the single most important outlet for most authors. But don’t expect things to get any easier this next twenty-four months. There are seismic changes happening, and the first quake is already rocking the boat. Just ask Hachette, or Warner Bros, or the ACX authors who saw their royalties slashed. Howey and Konrath can rest easy knowing Amazon’s red carpet will be there for them. For the rest of us, there’s never been a better time not to have all our eggs in one basket. Alibaba and ebooks? It WILL happen. And when it does, make sure you are there. But dont expect anything this year. Alibaba has recently done a big deal with HSBO to get US film and TV into China, and also has an expanding project with Lionsgate Entertainment, so is no stranger to brokering deals with big US companies. In fact its had a specialist team in America for the past year looking as US opportunities. bloomberg/news/2014-07-31/alibaba-deepening-u-s-startup-foray-with-investment-team.html Sticking with TV and film briefly, Alibaba has its own Tmall set-top box (fifty bucks cheaper than Amazons!), is investing heavily in video streaming and also in content production. It recently begun investments in film studios. Impossible to believe Alibaba has not already got its eye on the Chinese ebook market, and as Alibaba has every ambition of challenging Amazon for the US crown its inevitable it will turn its attention to the US ebook market too. Pure speculation on my part, but I wouldnt be the least surprised if Alibaba didnt buy out Nook when it spins off from B&N next year. One final take on this (for now). These deals with HSBO and Lionsgate are for western media - films and TV - which will be dubbed or sub-titled for the Chinese audience, where there is huge demand for western culture. Ask yourself this – if the Chinese want to watch the same TV and films you watch, and read the same big-name books you read, most of which have no Chinese settings or Chinese characters, why would they not be equally keen to read YOUR books? Those lucky enough to be able to sort translations for their ebooks now have a golden opportunity in China to grab some of this action. And for those who dont, ponder this: If you can generate enough interest in your English-language titles among the millions of Chinese who read English then the likelihood is you will be picked up by a Chinese publisher willing to foot the translation bill and get you on the first rung of this incredibly exciting ladder. Unlike the bit about Alibaba maybe buying Nook, the possibility of picking up a Chinese publisher is not idle speculation. We have five of our books being translated by a Beijing publisher as I write this. And yes, they came to us. But if you have the track record for paid sales (not freeby give-aways) you might want to try approaching a few Chinese publishers direct. You might just find youve found yourself the ride of a lifetime on a Chinese dragon. techinasia/alibaba-funding-kabam-for-mobile-gaming/?utm_source=Tech+in+Asia+Daily+News&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2193d1ffdb-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_term=0_b3548e816d-2193d1ffdb-94199481
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 12:41:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015