Geely Beats GM – In On-Line Sales
When GM tried to sell cars via eBay, 45 cars were sold in the first nine days. A month later, the idea was abandoned. Is the idea dead? Not in China.
China’s Geely started selling cars on-line a few weeks ago. Not on eBay, but on Taobao. Taobao, owned by Alibaba, is China’s leading e-commerce website. As of Thursday, December 23rd, Geely already had moved 500 cars on-line, Gasgoo writes, citing a report of the official Xinhua News Agency.
The number of internet users in China is 420 million, a penetration of 31.6 percent. Most of them are car-less …
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I don't know why this can't work world-wide; everything else is sold that way. Auto dealer experience is so dismal for most people, this seems to be a natural. Some version of the dealership is necessary for demonstration and repair I guess. I'd love to see this concept take-off in a significant way.
" Some version of the dealership is necessary for demonstration and repair I guess" You guess? The right relationship with the right dealership is the most important part of buying a car.
Makes complete sense to me. After all, if you actually test-drove that Geely... ;D