Etao Offers Forum Administrators Ad Revenue Share
Sina Tech, 11/03/10
Chinese B2C and C2C e-commerce company Taobao's new search engine ETao is planning to recruit 100,000 forum administrators for its Tao Bar online forums. Unlike Baidu's (Nasdaq: BIDU) Post Bar forums administrators, who receive no compensation, ETao administrators will be eligible to collectively earn tens of millions of RMB in monthly commissions.
Tao Bar "super administrators" will be able to earn commissions through Taobao Alliance's "Taoke" promotional service. In a public announcement, Taobao said potential candidates can apply on Taobao, must adhere to Taobao rules and regulations, and must log in at least eight times a day. Priority will be given to those with experience on other forums.
Super administrators can apply for a revenue share from online advertising after a two-week trial period and positive evaluation. The revenue share is to be determined based on forum traffic volume, user stickiness, and the super administrator's trust ratings. The super administrator in turn can voluntarily arrange to distribute revenue amongst regular forum administrators.
A source at Taobao said ETao already has more than 300,000 forums, the majority of which still lack administrators. The source said that ETao previously began giving commissions to a batch of administrators on a trial basis, ranging between several hundred and several thousand RMB each month. In one instance, the administrator of the weight loss forum earned more than RMB 3,000 in October, according to the source.
The source added that although still new, Tao Bar already has a lot of content - the weight loss forum sees thousands of posts each day, while the forums for discussing clothing and Taobao merchant shipping policies both reach over 100,000 new posts daily.
Keywords: e-commerce Taobao Internet online advertising B2C C2C revenue share Taoke Etao HR Baidu Post Bar online search online community BBS ad union Taobao Alliance