About 3.3 billion dollars. This is the amount that stands behind me One of the biggest investments ever in the field of virtual stores on the internet. Whether it surprises you or not, this is a made-in-China business move.
The main force that drives this investment initiative"L is the Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda - a corporation currently headed by Wang J'Yalin, the richest man in China whose fortune was estimated at 14 billion dollars. Together with the Dalian Wanda group, which deals mainly with the trade"n, joined the virtual adventure by two partners who know the world of the network well. The first is Beidou Corporation, which operates the largest Chinese search site in the world, and the second is the holding company Tencent, whose subsidiaries deal in a long list of areas in the communications industry such as television channels, internet, entertainment, online advertising, mobile phones and more.
According to official publications of the business partnership, the investment will span about five years and aims to create a virtual store that connects online commerce with offline commerce. Also, the partnership claims that the expectation is about 40 million registered customers by the end of 2014, and about 100 million customers by 2015.
Ali Baba and the 150 billion dollars
The main rival of the new venture is of course the Alibaba company of the Chinese billion'K Ma, whose fortune is estimated "only" About 13 billion dollars. Alibaba currently operates the most successful trading site in China and it is a kind of Amazon made in the Far East (but a little more). The battle between these two amazing ventures is gaining momentum as just a week after Dalian Wanda's official announcement, Ma is about to lead Alibaba into one of the largest IPOs in history. His company is about to be issued as a public company on the American stock exchange. "Shareholders are third, employees are second, and consumers are always first", Ma wrote in a letter to investors before the IPO.
For the purpose of comparison only, while the value of the American company Amazon is estimated at about 160 billion dollars, Ma's website, Alibaba, is estimated on the eve of the historic IPO at about 155.3 billion dollars. Simply put, the tiger has woken up and is roaring in English.
"We are just at the beginning of a revolution"
The choice of c'Ilin investing huge sums in a virtual store was not accepted in the empty space. In recent years, online commerce has long become one of the most important engines in the global economy. For the economic reporter Mits'For Harper, from the respected Australian magazine Financial Review, things are clear and the direction is one.
"Today, you can buy almost anything online. Millions of virtual stores make the shopping experience something available, easy and convenient", he says, "And if we add to this the incredible development of mobile phones, then we are only at the beginning of the revolution". Harper adds and points out that it is possible to see how virtual stores have changed our world of consumption especially when we look towards the empires that they will replace – The malls.
"If you visit a mall in Australia today, you will be able to meet businesses from completely new fields for the first time. For example, clinics, gyms, spas, bowling centers and luxury restaurants. The reason is simple. Unlike a Nike or Apple store, which can successfully market its products via the Internet, the businesses I mentioned that are not yet available to us in the online space".
Wang Guilin - Bet on the Internet
online shopping; It also works in Hebrew
The revolution that Harper talks about has of course also reached Israel (in different intensities but with the same direction). The most prominent example of this is, of course, the Yad2 site, or rather, the sale of the site for approximately NIS 806 million to the German company Axel Springer (a deal that matured in May 2014). "We recognize in the Yad2 site a tremendous potential that has not yet been fully realized", explained to the German company the process of purchasing the Israeli ad site, "The site is based on fascinating technology and it completes our portfolio in the field of ads in an ideal way".
Commercial portals on the Internet undoubtedly present a new and wonderful world of consumer culture which is becoming more and more common. The reasons for this lie both in the technological development and in the breaking of psychological barriers. For example, Israelis are less afraid to leave their credit card details online, and also products they have requested in the past "testing and measuring" (like clothes and shoes) are now purchased online. In July 2013, the economic magazine Globes published a study according to which in the first half of this year approximately 80% of Israelis bought at least one product online. Indeed, it is no wonder why many business owners, even those who have never owned a store, decide to open a virtual trading site.
The Israelis – Buy online mainly abroad"To but dream in Hebrew
The huge financial investment of the giant Chinese companies in the establishment of a new Internet venture for virtual commerce can certainly testify to what is to come. In other numbers, and on other scales, this amazing network movement is definitely an excellent economic option for Israeli entrepreneurs.
And if all this is still not enough for you, you will surely be surprised to hear that in the world of virtual commerce in Israel, consumers have even outpaced the suppliers. The Millward Integration Institute conducted a survey for Google Israel that examined the consumption habits of local Internet surfers. The survey results were both amazing and surprising. It turned out that although the Israelis are increasing their purchase rate online, about 60% of the transactions are carried out with websites abroad"to. If we add to this the fact that about 70% of the participants in the survey testified that they were ready to purchase a product from an Israeli website in Hebrew (even at a higher cost of about 5%), then it is clear that the market is still before the peak.