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What can the Internet do for me?
I'm happy to say that Alibaba.com last week crossed the 500,000-member mark.We reached that point by listening to our members. In fact, most of thefeatures on our Website come from the suggestions of our members, most ofwhom are small and medium enterprises (SMEs) involved in import and export.The number one comment and question we hear from our member SMEs is "I knowthe Internet is going to change everything. But what can it do for me?"There is so much hype about the Internet that it is difficult for SMEs toknow how to take advantage of it.To answer this central question, I have included three most importantconsiderations on how an SME can use the Internet to grow their businessnow: Use the Internet as a marketing tool. The Internet revolution isamazing because it is converging both communication and computing. But it ismy belief that businesses in Asia spend far too much time learning how touse the Internet as a computing and processing tool and not enough on howthey can use the Internet as a communication and marketing tool. It is tooearly for SME's to invest in sophisticated Internet supply chain systems.The real immediate opportunity is in communications and marketing. A fewyears ago building a company Website was very difficult and costly. Butthese days, with an investment of just a few hours of their time, SMEs cango from a local business to a global business by building a company Website.This is the most powerful marketing tool an SME can have. You may not haveresources to advertise in every trade publication. And you may not haveresources to travel the world at trade shows. But you can easily build acompany Website. Our own product, Alibaba Trade Site, is a place wherepeople can build a company catalog online which is linked to the Alibabamarketplace. Tools such as these are helping businesses market themselves tothe world. Use the Internet as a search tool. For most people going online, thefirst site they visit is Yahoo! Searching is still one of the most importantfunctions people use on the Web. This is especially true for SMEs. It usedto be that SMEs hoping to find suppliers or buyers had to buy expensivecatalogs or travel to expensive trade shows with the hope of meeting theright people. Unfortunately, the SMEs did not have a large enough scale tojustify these costs, which gave the bigger players an upper hand. But nowthe Internet has leveled the playing field and tipped the scales back infavor of the small and quick. While it may seem obvious to use the Internetas a search tool, very few people take full advantage of what is availableonline. To keep their suppliers' prices low, companies should always goonline and seek alternatives to existing suppliers, which gives them greaterbargaining power.To keep the markets for their products growing, SMEs should have a team thatis consistently online looking for new suppliers. In fact much of thegroundwork for a deal can be done before a first meeting. As technologyimproves, services such as video plant tours and product demonstrations willhelp eliminate travel time and costs in searching for the right partners andproducts. Investing in technology is great. But don't buy technology fortechnology's sake. Too many times I have seen SMEs invest in the mostsophisticated Internet technologies only to find out they did not need sucha sophisticated system. The basic value of the Internet for SMEs-search costsavings and marketing improvements-can multiply a company's cost savings ormarket reach by a multiple of 10. But upgrading to the most exciting newInternet technology may only increase efficiency by 5 per cent. In a maturedeveloped economy that 5 per cent makes a big difference. But in developingeconomies and entrepreneurial settings such fine tuning is not quite asimportant as the quantum leaps that come from opening a new market. Inentrepreneurial settings in Asia, business for SMEs is more art thanscience, more street smarts than theory. The greatest Internet technologymay impress your boss but is it really as valuable as you think?(Jack Ma is CEO and founder of Alibaba.com [www.alibaba.com], the world'slargest marketplace for global trade and host to one of India's largesttrade communities)Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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