I see many ongoing B2B developments happening in this region from now moving towards Q1 of 2008. Alibaba has just gone public with the second biggest Internet IPO ever, Global Sources is about launching the Chinese website in this month, also heard that HK TDC is working on a major revamp for its TDCTRADE.COM and the new site will debut in April next year. Everyone is so busy.
But just like Paul Woodward was telling us at ad:tech, “So far, the battle has been with the generalists.” The generalists are focusing on a couple of SME sectors such as gifts and premiums, toys, houseware, electronics, and a few more on the list. Businesses like these are mostly export oriented, relatively pragmatic and basic in IT, tend to look for one-stop shop for marketing solution.
B2B is a broad term that covers almost all the business sectors. What the online sourcing portals are doing at the moment focus only a small fraction of the long tail. So what about the head which in theory they are the 20% of the world economy. What kind of business experience have these companies had with Internet?
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Years ago I was in the B2B online media business, and lucky enough, I was working closely with all the major chemical companies in the region. Now when I look back in almost 6 years later, the e-business practice of the chemical business sector remains cutting edge even by today standard.
One of the successful e-business startups that I had come across was the spin off of Dow Corning called “XIAMETER.” Xiameter was launched as a web-enabled business platform since day one. It served as an online trading platform for the large volume and commonly used silicon products. Dow Corning launched Xiameter when they realized that the product life cycle of some silicon product lines had been reaching the commodity stage, so automation was the best solution to achieve cost effective business return, also made easy for the supply chain integration.
My second case that should be marked as the cornerstone of the e-business world is GEPLASTICS.COM. GEPlastics.com is set to be a milestone because it was launched when Jack Welch proclaimed GE as an Internet company. It was the famous initiative brought by Jack Welch for GE. GEPlastics was also launched as an online trading platform to handle the procurement of GE plastic materials over the Internet. It was just acquired by its competitor, Sabic, in March 2007.
They were, in retrospect, the greatest success of the vertical B2B models. Even today they continue to evolve and demonstrate to be the proven business establishments on the cyberspace.
Alright, I have a few more to tell you such as the first Internet vertical B2B ad exchange for the chemical business sector, the e-business coalition founded to battle with the GEPlastics Internet initiative, and most importantly, how do I see all these vertical B2B pioneers have their future implication for today’s online sourcing portals. Let’s talk more, in my next post.
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Thanks for visiting this weblog. I am a digital marketer based in Hong Kong. After founding a marketing consulting company, merged it with a trade show company, and completed my tenure in 2007, I am blogging my insight and commentary for marketing and entrepreneurial experience. Now I am the Managing Director of 
