[LAUNCHPAD] Gates2Asia Pitches a Groupon for SME Businesses
Founded in March last year, Gates2Asia (G2A) is a B2B cooperative buying sites for international based SME’s to buy directly from low cost Asian suppliers like China. Essentially it is like a Groupon for SMEs, meaning when teaming up with other SMEs to buy the same things in bulk it leads to lower costs and greater competitiveness.
Although the site is still in beta and will officially launch in August this year, Founder and CEO Kenneth Chan has big hopes for G2A. Self-funded with a team of 5, Chan wants to help the little SME guy be as competitive as their larger competitors that have sophisticated supply chains and relationships to low cost Asian suppliers. You could argue that this is what Jack Ma did with Alibaba, but businesses like G2A have mixed in cooperative buying to make purchasing even cheaper. Chan says the biggest problems for international SMEs when buying from China is that they are uncomfortable with the process including language, customs, shipping, how to pay, taxes etc.
The market size is evidently big. In 2009, SME’s imported US$124 billion in goods from China alone and 80% of SME imports were from wholesalers and non-manufacturing companies. Such a big opportunity was not neglected when Japanese based Infinity Ventures and SOS Ventures, invested US$3M into OrderWithMe.com and the winner of TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing in 2011.
The process is fairly simple. SMEs can join G2A, state what they want to buy and the quantities they want. After sourcing and negotiating with suppliers they post the details on a board. Other SME buyers can join the co-operative and when there is enough, the purchase order is made. Of course everyone saves money because the total order is large.
プロセスは実にシンプルだ。SMEはG2Aに参加し、何を買いたいか及び何をいくつ欲しいかを述べることができる。サプライヤーを調達し交渉した後、詳細を役員会へ提示する。その他のSMEバイヤーも協同組合に参加することができ、十分な資金があれば購入注文を行うことができる。もちろん、双注文数が大きいので皆が節約することができる。
手続きはとても簡単だ。中小企業はG2Aに登録し、欲しい商品と数量を明記する。供給業者を選別・交渉した後に、詳細を掲示板に掲示する。他の中小企業はその協業に参加し、十分な注文があれば、発注が行なわれる。もちろん、注文量が大きいのだから、誰もがお金を節約できる。
SMEs can rate their experience with the supplier to warn or encourage others. The rating system is also designed to promote good suppliers or other SMEs and remove the bad ones. Such transparency mechanisms are aimed at keeping everyone honest and efficient. Alibaba has been infamously found to be promoting shady suppliers because they simply paid for it. G2A does not charge any fees except for a cut of the transaction value to keep the platform performance based.
To test the business model G2A will start with computer products.
G2Aのビジネスモデルはコンピューター製品からスタートする。
このビジネスモデルを試すため、G2Aはまずコンピュータープロダクトから手掛ける予定だ。
