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I wanted to follow up on what I wrote several days ago regarding Alibaba's foray into offline advertising. Based on my understanding of Alibaba Group, it would surprise me the company actually makes a strong push into offline advertising at the moment. A key reason is that despite its recent success and growth, Alibaba faces plenty of troubles with its existing business. With the renminbi continuing to gain value versus the dollar, many suppliers in China are finding it more difficult to export their goods. These exporters bring in a large part of Alibaba's revenue, and when they are unable to pay their membership fees, Alibaba will feel the pinch.
Another problem for Alibaba group is the wave of criticism that Taobao has endured for collecting fees from some merchants on its B2C platform. Many smaller sellers feel that Taobao is playing favorites and promoting paying merchants at the expense of the masses of unpaying sellers whose offerings have helped Taobao become popular. C2C auction competitors Eachnet (a subsidiary of Ebay) and Paipai (a subsidary of Tencent) are using the opportunity to lure sellers away. Moreover, Taobao cannot count on the kind of financial support from other companies in Alibaba Group, now that sister company Alibaba is publicly traded.
With all these other problems to worry about, I just don't think it's very likely that Alibaba will make a major push into offline advertising. With the "Media Supermarket", the company is most likely just testing the waters. I wouldn't be surprised if, after learning more about offline advertising, Alibaba used some of its new wealth to buy its way into the sector.
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