Taobao, the Ecommerce juggernaut, which their 11.11 Singles Day sales alone exceeded the combined value of Black Friday & Cyber Monday in the US. These are 10 other product lines on Taobao, other than Ecommerce, which exemplifies what it means to be a "Super App". #9 is my favorite.
1. Ticketing - Book movies, concerts and event tickets
A product line that easily leverages on the features & designs of their existing Ecommerce business (eg. reviews, inventory management, payment).
2. Reviews - its basically Yelp on steroids
An extension of Taobao's presence in the online world, to the offline brick-and-mortar restaurants, beauty salons, children-friendly amenities, and even wedding planners/photographers.
User-generated content (ratings, reviews and photos) is at the heart of the user experience. However, there is also emphasis on other aspects like vouchers, leaderboards, tags (eg. non-smoking, free Wi-Fi, parking availability, operating hours) that can help drive consumer decision. This facilitates better discoverability, especially in dense cities where the ratio of users-to-entities are much more lopsided.
3. Top-ups - Mobile plans, utility bills and gaming credits
Mobile top-up has a wide total addressable market (TAM) since smartphone penetration is high in China, while expanding to similar payment use-cases like utility and games.
4. Travel - One-stop shop for your travel needs
Extending across all modes of travel, accommodations, attraction tickets, travel guides, and even visa application! A high-intent and previously troublesome process for outbound local Chinese.
5. Second hand - Resale market
Leveraging existing Ecommerce features to venture into a complimentary market. Since the resale market is highly dependent on trust/credibility, with issues of counterfeit, warranty, and damaged goods, the seller's credit score and chat function is highlighted on the homepage.
6. Medicine - From equipment and contraceptives, to plastic surgery
Similar tech stack as Ecommerce, but a deeper focus on legitimacy. In the deeper pages of this product line, this is achieved through the doctor's profile page (emphasizing hospital names, specialization, and reviews), educational content (eg. articles on preventing heart disease), and live stream (eg. talk shows by certified doctors).
7. Groceries - Group buying, bulk purchase, offline memberships
Mainly reusing their existing Ecommerce features.
8. Food delivery - Acquired ELEME (饿了么)
Similar to groceries, but highlighting their 30 mins guarantee since food delivery is more time-sensitive. There's also a larger focus on price/promos.
9. Games - Building virality & retention
This topic could be a deep dive on its own. Something foreign to western apps, where games are not used as one-off lucky draws, but a feature to drive retention. Similar to Farmville, users complete time-based tasks to grow their crops, and are rewarded for loyalty (daily logins). Virality is also baked into the game design which reinforces strong social elements by creating group missions, and the ability to view or "attack" your friend's garden.
10. Auction - Building trust for large ticket items like property
As observed, this is another example of reusing existing features on a complimentary market. What's amazing is the level of user trust, where users are willing to transact large ticket items like property, jewelry and art. The more price-sensitive users are also not neglected, with themes such as $1 auction, for users looking for a bargain.
Usually, the customer service support channels are buried away to reduce cost, so its refreshing to see it in such a prominent position. My take is that 1) there is no VOIP, so users can only call a landline, which might be costly and most mobile plans are shifting to data-only plans, 2) users can access their chatbot which is incredibly extensive & automated, so its less of a cost concern. With my experience building chatbots, Taobao's support channels deserves an analysis on its own.
Stay tuned for more Taobao features!
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