Alibaba launches new trade show partnership plan

The Trade Show Partnership Program will allow both to grow by tapping the resources of Alibaba.com's huge community of importers and exporters. "In the offline world, people go to trade shows for a week and hope they get their necessary leads in that time," said Porter Erisman, Alibaba.com's vice-president for international marketing and business development. "With Alibaba.com, they can meet at trade shows and then conduct business online throughout the rest of the year." He added: "The longterm vision is to work with trade-show organisers to transform their shows from one-week events into 365-day exhibitions." Alibaba.com successfully tested the new programme with the Kenfair Mega Show in Hong Kong last October. Herbert Ip, chairman of Kenfair International, said: "The partnership showed that combining resources was a powerful way to help both partners grow their businesses." Alibaba.com also owns Yahoo! China, which it acquired in October 2005.