1. Taobao To Launch Open Platform And New Logo For TMall
TMall, the B2C subsidiary of Taobao, is launching a B2C-oriented ecommerce open platform alongside a new logo for the China’s largest B2C site in terms of sales (RMB30b in last year). It might be a signal for an independent IPO for the Taobao subsidiary.
Founded in April 2008, TMall has attracted more than 70,000 prominent brands including Lenovo, HP, Panasonic, Adidas, Disney, L’OREAL and so on to operate their official shop on the platform.
Interesting, Paipai by Tencent is also on track to release its Super B2c platform in the fourth quarter of this year.
2. Baidu Secretly Launches URL Shortening Service With API
Baidu launches its short link service dwz.cn yesterday with Open API. The service lets users shorten links and reduce URL length – handy on Sina Weibo or other social media.
The search giant’s American counterpart Google also has a similar service Goo.gl and G.co while Twitter (t.co), Sina Weibo (t.cn) and Tencent Weibo (url.cn) all have their own short links offerings.
3. Kaixin001 Goes Aggressively On Mobile With New iOS App
Kaixin001, the SNS site that is seeing significant decline in traffic and user activity, has just released its new iOS app, which is an ambitious combination of LBS service, Instagram and microblogging.
With the new app, users get to check-in, check out strangers who’re nearby (like Weixin) and exchange business cards (like Bumper) and post pictures (with similarities to Instagram).
The thing is, in making a blend of a diversified set of features hail from hot startups and their original idea, Kaixin001 ssems to be lost in following new and trendy concepts and fail to find its own way to serve its very core users. Not all that mobile users are in need of a load of fancy functions. Mostly, they only want an app to share and communicate with friends, online and offline. That’s always the core of all kinds of social.
Why would a link shortener be useful on Weibo, which shortens everything automatically? I can’t see why Baidu would launch such a thing… unless there is some really smart tracking?