If we classify these enterprises under the C2C cross-border e-commerce model into echelons, there is no doubt that Taobao Global Shopping is in the dominant first echelon, with a market share of more than 80%. The second echelon is Yangmatou and Meilishuo HIGO, but their combined market share is less than 10%. Other players in the industry can be classified as the third echelon, including Taoshijie, Haimi, Jiemi, and other newly created C2C cross-border e-commerce platforms.
Seeing such a pattern in the C2C cross-border e-commerce industry, it seems that Taobao Global Shopping has monopolized the entire market, and other players are just spending money as a foil. However, I would rather put it this way: Although Taobao Global Shopping is currently in an absolute leading position, it does not mean that other players have no chance.
First of all, C2C cross-border e-commerce meets consumers’ personalized needs for overseas products, and the market capacity is huge. In the above analysis, the current scale of this industry is only more than 20 billion yuan (2015), but if the parallel import part, that is, the share of purchasing agents in the entire Taobao, is included, the industry scale will reach 100 billion yuan. More importantly, with the rise of China’s middle class, their demand for personalized non-standard products will increase, and this type of non-standard products is exactly what the C2C model can meet. Therefore, the future growth of this industry will include both the transfer of stock from the parallel import (gray entry) model and organic growth under normal demand. This huge potential market capacity is an opportunity for every new player.
Secondly, Taobao Global Shopping is within the Taobao system. This natural limitation will inevitably leave growth opportunities for other players. Taobao Global Shopping is not a separate APP, and its traffic relies on Taobao. In other words, Taobao Global Shopping cannot cover non-Taobao users. Although the scale of Taobao users is huge, in first-tier developed cities, there are already a large number of non-Taobao users and extremely inactive Taobao users. As long as other players capture these users, they will have a very good living space.
Finally, the scene revolution in the mobile era has given vertical e-commerce opportunities to grow. In the mobile scenario, in addition to the massive search demand left by the PC, consumers also have strong fragmented individual needs. Obviously, Taobao Global Shopping meets consumers’ “big and complete” needs, while fragmented individual needs are left to other players such as Ymatou and Meilishuo.
Therefore, even if Taobao Global Shopping continues to lead the market in the future, other players still have room for growth. It is difficult to say who will win among so many emerging C2C cross-border e-commerce platforms. However, there has never been a “protracted war” in the e-commerce industry, and the outcome will be clear in the next few years.