Alibaba to Run $30 Million US Marketing Campaign

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.com is pushing into the US market with a big marketing campaign starting next week. The move is the first big foray in the area and aims to familiarize American entrepreneurs with the English version of its site, the WSJ reports. The site itself has been around since the company was founded 10 years ago but hasn't been that popular in the country.

Alibaba, in which Yahoo is a major investor, with a 44 percent stake, is one of the bigger Internet companies in China, with several successful businesses including an online retail marketplace, a payment platform among others and, of course, its best known property, Alibaba.cn, a business to business e-commerce site. The company brought in about $440 million in revenue last year but net income was down, partly affected by the overall economic environment but also by the major marketing effort the company has been undertaking.

Alibaba.com is similar in concept to other e-commerce sites though it isn't aimed at individual customers and retailers but at suppliers looking to sell their wares wholesale. The site charges suppliers for listing their products but doesn't broker the actual transactions. Since it is worried that user and customer numbers will level off this year in China, it is looking to international markets to sustain its growth.

The company reports 8.6 million registered users for its international site, only 1.3 million of which are Americans, which is why it’s focusing its efforts on the US market. Alibaba.cn on the other hand has 32 million subscribers. The company now plans a $30 million ad campaign in the US with ads running on major websites and publications but also on TV. The ads will focus on the successes of previous Alibaba.com users, hoping to drum up interest among small business owners. Alibaba is amidst a major expansion campaign spanning several years with an acquisition budget between $200 and $300 million.