Alibaba vice president revealed in public that Alibaba B2B platform 1688.com achieved daily transaction of 300 million yuan (USD 49.1 million) after a year’s transition to online wholesale transaction platform.
1688.com used to be an information platform, now it has been upgraded to a transaction platform within three years. In 2013, 1688.com integrated 1688 suppliers information in Taobao search, launched huopin (a wholesale group buy channel), taogongchang (an online manufacturing factories platform offering suppliers information for Taobao sellers ) and taohuoyuan (an online procurement platform specified for Taobao sellers). 1688 grew to the top choice of Taobao sellers for procurement.
In March 2013, 1688 daily transaction was around 30 million yuan (USD 4.91 million). By the end of 2013, it had increased tenfold. With the population of internet, online B2B grew rapidly in 2013. In the future, the challenge of online B2B lies in replacing the security of offline B2B transactions which is what Alibaba plans to solve.