Nanette Bulger, the Executive Director, CEO of the Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP), visited Tradesparq with her partner Miss Lakshika Trikha, Event Program Manager of SCIP, and our friend Mr. Chenwei, the CEO of CICI. The Founder & CEO of Tradesparq, Mr. Yu Wanling received several distinguished guests with his assistant.
B2B Social Sourcing platform Tradesparq has merged with Shanghai Shuangji IT company, a provider of customs data that tracks import and export shipments from 57 countries.
Tradesparq utilizes social networking search to match volume buyers and manufacturers around the world, providing customized search results for each buyer with products ordered by relationship and shipment history.
Tradesparq announced today it has acquired Shanghai Shuangji IT Company, a provider of customs data that tracks import and export shipments from 57 countries. The acquisition makes Tradesparq the first B2B global trade platform to verify Chinese suppliers through a combination of online social network relationships, community reviews and worldwide shipment history.
Tradesparq, with a community of more than 300,000 suppliers and several million products online, provides importers with a comprehensive set of tools to filter and narrow their product search down to a handful of suppliers that can be quickly vetted online. This significantly reduces risk for buyers importing from overseas. By adding the Shanghai Shuangji data to its platform, buyers using Tradesparq will have access to more than 800 million shipment records from around the world that can be matched to prospective suppliers.
Interview of Brian Hager, Founder of Tradesparq. Watch on Youku
"Two things seem crazy about Tradesparq. The first thing is that it's an Internet startup in China founded by two Americans. The second is that it thinks it can take on Chinese giant Alibaba and its business-to-business marketplace.
Tradesparq was founded in Shanghai in 2011 by Brian Hager and Michael Kleist, who started the company after leaving executive positions at Global Sources, an early Alibaba competitor. Hager and Kleist think Alibaba – whose B2B trading arm alone was valued at $6 billion when listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange – has an outdated approach and one glaring weakness: You can never really be sure who you're trading with."
"A handful of venture firms have been trying to slash the time and cost of profiting from biotechnology investments through new, "virtual" drug-development approaches, but some are finding the strategy is taking longer to execute than expected. Biotech start-ups often consume $50 million to $100 million before they go public or are acquired. Venture capitalists have been looking to lower biotech costs to improve their odds of success."
"Established in 2010, the Shanghai-based business-to-business (B2B) trading platform is trying to get a step ahead of Hangzhou-based Alibaba.com, the world's largest B2B e-commerce service provider, envisioning a new online marketplace where Alibaba meets LinkedIn, a social networking site for professionals.
Tradesparq enables registered users to search a directory of suppliers and match those results against their own social networks. Membership costs US$150 a year, including product and company profiles."
Presentation by Michael Kleist, Founder of Tradesparq
"Tradesparq.com reflects a social networking trend in which sites leverage who a person knows as a way to add credibility to potential business deals. Without LinkedIn, Tradesparq.com would be just another business-to-business site. With the professional network, the company can use a buyer's LinkedIn contacts to put him in touch with people who know the Chinese supplier bidding on a product request."
"Tradesparq, a Shanghai based startup, is trying to simplify the process of locating a trustworthy manufacturing partner by allowing business owners to search a directory of global suppliers and match those results against their social network. Think Alibaba meets Linkedin.
Last year Tradesparq had 1.2 million inquiries and says its on pace to do four times that this year. It has backing from a mix of angels and institutions, including Ed Haynes, the CFO of China Omnicom Media and founder of Wangyou.com, an early Chinese social network."
"We love to talk to local startups and we've seen more and more well designed products (sites and apps) are doing great in the local market. But, we have to admit that it's still not easy to find a product whose business model is kinda unique even in the global market. TradeSparq is one of the exceptions which I don't know any western service to compare with."
