The China eCommerce giant Alibaba started testing a new eCommerce App “Taibang” (态棒). It focuses on the pop culture and street fashion beloved by young generations, according to ebrun.com.
Taibang aims at introducing original domestic designer brands to Gen-Z and millennials with the slogan “Made in China with Attitude.”
Youth-oriented fashion eCommerce
Compared to Taobao and Tmall, Taibang integrated more social features such as hot topics, community, and Dammu (in Chinese: 弹幕. Check this if you want to know more about Dammu and the leading UGC video platform Bilibili). Nowadays, young people tend to discover new brands on social media such as Red and Douyin. Alibaba also aims to stimulate shopping impulses by creating a community of shared interests by adapting to this trend.
Taibang is a DTC platform. The users can directly engage with the brand owner and chat with other users in the community. As for shopping, the user experience will be the same as Taobao.
If you are a brand founder with a Taobao store, opening a Taibang store is easy. You can simply copy your products from Taobao to Taibang. (source: http://www.woshipm.com/it/5393616.html)
Right now, a typical Chinese customer journey is to discover a new brand on Red or Douyin, research on Red, then buy them on Taobao or Tmall. Taibang illustrates Alibaba’s ambition of creating an in-app full funnel experience from seeding and research to final purchase.
Is Taibang a promising eCommerce platform?
Alibaba is still the eCommerce market leader, although facing severe challenges from new social commerce players such as Red, Douyin, and Dewu.
Many technology giants have tried to grab the young audiences’ attention by combining a solid seeding culture (Red as a benchmark) and a trusted eCommerce platform (like Dewu). However, many efforts faded into darkness: back in 2020, Pinduoduo launched a WeChat mini program called “Duochao” 多潮; in 2021, JD founded a WeChat mini program “Jieme” 芥么; even ByteDance tried to replicate the success of Douyin by launching a seeding platform “Douyin Box”; but none of them managed to compete with Red.
How far Taibang can go as a social eCommerce platform still need more time to observe.