Yahoo Taiwan Holding Ltd (雅虎) yesterday launched a Taiwan-Hong Kong e-commerce shopping platform, inviting about 1,000 online stores from Taiwan to explore business opportunities of cross-border online shopping.
“The cross-border platform can be successful as Hong Kong has tariff exemption for imports and the consumers there are very interested in Taiwan’s food and cosmetics,” Yahoo Taiwan’s e-commerce group vice president Jacky Wang (王志仁) told a news conference at the eCommerce Expo Asia in the Taipei World Trade Center’s Nangang Exhibition Hall.
Citing international research results, Wang said that the global business-to-consumer cross-border e-commerce market is expected to jump from last year’s US$230 billion to US$1 trillion by 2020.
Photo: Lee Ching-hui, Taipei Times
“The next five years are going to be very important for Yahoo Taiwan to seize the opportunities in cross-border e-commerce,” he said.
Hong Kong is the most suitable market for Taiwan’s online stores moving into the cross-border e-commerce industry, because the territory shares similar cultural and linguistic backgrounds with Taiwan, Wang said.
Taiwan is ranked one of the top five overseas markets for Hong Kong consumers making purchases through online shopping platforms, Wang said, citing company data.
The average monthly salary of a Hong Kong online shopper is NT$110,000 (US$3,340), 2.6 times higher than the Taiwanese average of NT$42,000, which means they have relatively high purchasing power, Wang said.
Yahoo Taiwan is working with Yahoo Hong Kong to offer advertising exposure to Taiwanese online stores during the upcoming 11.11 shopping festival, Wang said.
Singles’ Day (光棍節) on Nov. 11 was reportedly begun by male Chinese university students, who called it Bachelors’ Day, but as its popularity spread it was embraced by both men and women and the name was changed.
Taiwanese shops could station themselves in Hong Kong’s Yahoo Flagship free-of-charge, Wang said, adding that the platform also offers stores complete logistics solutions.
“Yahoo’s services would lower the entry threshold of cross-border e-commerce for the online shops, helping Taiwanese companies enter the international market,” he said.
Taiwan’s e-commerce penetration rate is among the top three in the world, which shows the nation has been successful in developing the business model for retail transactions, the Taiwan Internet and E-Commerce Association (TiEA, 台灣網路暨電子商務產業發展協會) said.
At the expo’s opening ceremony, TiEA chairman Jan Hung-tze (詹宏志) said that e-commerce now accounts for more than 11 percent of Taiwan’s total retail revenue, trailing behind South Korea and the UK, but ahead of the US and China.
While Taiwan lacks large-sized e-commerce operators — defined as those that have market capitalization surpassing US$1 billion — the nation’s nearest small and medium-sized corporate participants have helped the sector grow rapidly, said Jan, who is chairman of PChome Online Inc (網路家庭), a leading Taiwanese e-commerce operator.
The Institute for Information Industry (資策會) has forecast that the local retail e-commerce would earn US$33.4 billion in revenue this year.
Additional reporting by CNA
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