Sellers Protest Costs Taobao RMB 3 Mln in Ad Revenue
21st Century Business Herald, 7/27/10
A group of sellers on Chinese B2C and C2C e-commerce site Taobao have formed an anti-Taobao coalition in response to recent adjustments to Taobao's product search ranking algorithm, believing that Taobao is attempting to force them to use its Zhitongche paid search ranking service.
A number of merchants began to form a QQ Group on July 23 where they encouraged one another to click right-side Zhitongche advertisements on Taobao's search result page. Some merchants then withdrew their advertisements from Zhitongche in order to avoid ad spend losses. The organizers said their goal is to decrease the effectiveness of large sellers' advertisements, forcing them to complain to Taobao.
A spokesperson for Taobao said the matter had already been reported to the police and an investigation is currently underway. According to Taobao statistics, Zhitongche revenue losses between July 8 and July 13 surpassed RMB 3 mln.
Editor's Note: For more background on this topic, please see "Taobao Sellers Protest Ranking Changes" MD 7/13/10 issue.
Keywords: online advertising e-commerce Taobao Internet statistics B2C C2C online search
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