1688.com, the largest online B2B website under Alibaba Group and sourcing destinations of many Taobao sellers, is opening up to foreign suppliers with the addition of twenty four South Korean brands through Alibaba’s Direct From Overseas Markets program.
1688 started accepting suppliers from outside mainland China since August 2014 when some wholesalers from Taiwan were accepted into the online B2B platform.
The acceptance of Korean suppliers on 1688.com were supported by South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Rural Affairs. Some of the well known brands are Woongjin Foods, brewer HITE-Jinro, and Daesang Corp.
1688.com is a Chinese online B2B website while its sister website Alibaba.com is an English one for global sourcing. According to 1688, a mini-site will be set up for Korean products by the end of this year. And, the next country under Direct From Overseas Markets program is Southeast Asian countries.
China B2B e-commerce market revenue exceeded RMB4.53 billion (US$740 million), an increase of 6.1% from the prior quarter in the same year and by 57.29% from prior year period according to the latest data from Enfodesk.
Check out China online B2B market share in Q2 2014 here.
Also read: China B2B Market Overview in 2013