The US-based Extant Inc last week provided the last-mile services to help
China's mass small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) enjoy e-commerce benefits without
logging onto the Internet. "We know that the Internet is not available to many of
the country's SMEs and our service is designed to achieve their last-mile accession to
e-commerce," said Chris Wong, chief executive officer with Extant Asia Limited.
Extant has opened an e-commerce website at http://www.iLastMile.com to provide business
information for China's mass SMEs.
Wong said that the website serves as an information bridge to help the SMEs find
valuable business opportunities.
"Our registered customers do not need to surf the Internet, we will offer them
requested information faxes and mail express," said Wong.
A recent report from the State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC) showed that
although 70 per cent of the country's enterprises have connected to the Internet, most of
them simply opened a homepage and an e-mail address.
Elizabeth Guo , general manager of China Business Development with the iLastMile.com,
said china's SMEs should benefit from the Internet through seeking business opportunities,
rather than by showcasing their companies' names.
In an effort to demonstrate their money-making perspectives to investors, many of the
country's dotcom companies early this year began to provide e-commerce services using the
business to customer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) models.
Although on-line shopping has been popular abroad in recent years, Internet
applications, for many Chinese surfers, are still limited to looking for news and checking
e-mail.
China lacks of a standardized credit verification system and an effective express
delivery network, two elements considered critical for the operation of on-line shopping
and business transactions.
"We will charge for information we provide to our customers, so we're confident of
making money," said Guo.
The iLastMile.com website's organizers plan to establish a nationwide service network
and provide value-added services by extending the information coverage to the
international market. |
