時事新聞:阿里巴巴在美啓動廣告宣傳

【英文原文】

Chinese e-commerce company 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 '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 . 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 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 '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 business to the public in 2007.

Since then, '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 .

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, had 1.3 million U.S. registered users, compared with 8.6 million total users, according to the company. , 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 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%.

【中文譯文】

中國電子商務公司阿里巴巴( Inc.)週一將啓動在美國的首個大規模廣告宣傳活動，這是該公司在全球衰退期間尋求新發展的舉措。

這場規模達3,000萬美元的宣傳活動主要針對美國市場，同時也會在歐洲和中東推出，其目的在於向美國企業家介紹阿里巴巴的英文網站。這個網站爲企業家提供一個平臺，採購從婚紗到小家電等一切產品的原材料，然後又可以通過這個網站將產品賣給其他企業。

這場廣告宣傳活動將持續幾個月，其目標羣體是小企業主，廣告將講述企業家的成功故事，比如一個人通過阿里巴巴網站開創烤箱隔熱手套公司，還有的企業家通過在阿里巴巴網站採購原材料而將公司做大。阿里巴巴美國公司總經理桑寧說，Fast Company等雜誌以及CNN Money等網站上都會打出廣告，其廣告語爲“Find it. Make it. Sell it”。

她說，阿里巴巴還在CNBC，以及ABC的Shark Tank節目投放了電視廣告。Shark Tank將於週日首次播出。

此次在美國宣傳推廣是阿里巴巴在中國之外擴展業務的最新嘗試，阿里巴巴是中國最大的針對企業的網站之一，也是一個知名的互聯網品牌。阿里巴巴集團(Alibaba Group)於2007年將旗下最重要的阿里巴巴網絡有限公司()掛牌上市。阿里巴巴集團旗下還有一箇中文在線支付服務以及在線零售網站淘寶網(Taobao)。

上市後，阿里巴巴2008年收入增長至人民幣30億元（4.39億美元），其收入主要來自在網站上發佈各類商品信息的供應商交納的服務費。不過阿里巴巴的利潤因經濟衰退而有所縮減。

雅虎公司(Yahoo! Inc.)持有阿里巴巴集團的股份，同時也是阿里巴巴網絡有限公司的大股東。

阿里巴巴10年前成立時就有一個英文版的國際站點，作爲中文站點的輔助。如今，阿里巴巴的絕大部分收入來自這個擁有數量龐大的中國供應商服務的國際業務。但其在美國發展緩慢。阿里巴巴的數據顯示，截止今年3月，阿里巴巴英文站點的美國註冊用戶爲130萬，而總用戶數爲860萬。其中文站點有3,200萬註冊用戶。

桑寧承認，阿里巴巴在美國尚未建立深厚的品牌基礎，儘管業務模式不同，但美國的企業家傾向於eBay Inc.。eBay的業務目標是希望買賣某一產品的消費者，而阿里巴巴的業務是撮合供應商和批發商，這一模式類似於中國盛行的貿易展。但阿里巴巴並不是扮演經紀行的角色，該網站向供應商收取發佈產品信息和額外推廣的費用，讓他們在網站之外達成交易。

桑寧表示，雖然更多的美國用戶瀏覽阿里巴巴網站不能直接帶來收入，但擁有美國用戶對吸引來自數百個國家的更多付費供應商來說非常重要，美國買家是阿里巴巴最爲重要的買家市場之一。

不過，要吸引美國小企業用戶可能並不容易。國際互聯網公司一向難以取代本土網絡品牌，而阿里巴巴所瞄準的特定市場的規模目前尚不清楚。雖然業務模式不同，很多自己創業的企業主仍滿意於在eBay上進行大筆採購並向消費者進行銷售。

除了廣告活動，阿里巴巴還通過培訓錄像、組織競賽、活動以及商業開發協議來爭取美國用戶。今年早些時候，阿里巴巴和聯邦快遞(FedEx)達成了一項推廣合作協議。根據協議，阿里巴巴爲聯邦快遞客戶使用其網站提供幫助，聯邦快遞則向阿里巴巴用戶提供折扣。

爲了支持這一舉措，阿里巴巴已經將旗下美國員工從去年的5名增加到17名，並計劃在2010年進一步擴大其在加州聖克拉拉的業務隊伍。

阿里巴巴的最新美國廣告宣傳活動是和舊金山廣告公司Traction一起設計的。阿里巴巴還將在歐洲和中東進行類似的廣告活動。桑寧說，她希望通過此次廣告活動，推動熟知阿里巴巴品牌的美國用戶數量在年前增加10%，並將廣告活動所針對的具體用戶羣的流量提高大約20%。