Tpage Global Co., Ltd. (http://www.tpage.com) launches a paid service for the first time amongst e-Marketplaces.
The general marketplace announced on Nov. 14 that it would begin a paid service starting from Nov. 18 in order to offer various trade proposals and communication services to its member companies on the basis of accurate trade information.
Accordingly, its corporate members at home and abroad should pay a certain amount of fees to use information on members and trade proposals.
So far, e-Marketplaces in some types of industries have initiated a paid service. But such a comprehensive paid service for the entire site is estimated to be a very rare case even in overseas.
The initiative is basically oriented toward ‘Real Traders Network’, preventing offering unreliable information on trade and providing members with a good quality of information and services. By doing so, Tpage Global aims at boosting a success rate of trade transactions within the site and reducing transaction costs of members.
The marketplace expects 20% of new members and 10% of existing ones to be converted to paid members by the year-end. In addition, it anticipates posting 3.5 billion won and more than 1.8 billion won in sales and content export in the online sector this year.
Fees for Economy Member and Premium Member are set at $99 and $399 per year. The former can make a basic transaction proposal and the latter is allowed to use various online marketing means as well.
Earlier, Tpage Global switched the management of electronic catalogues of members and the platform for online consultation between them and buyers at home and abroad to paid services in July.
Since the establishment in 1999, it has acquired 125,000-plus members in 225 countries and is holding the largest corporate directories (about 120,000).
"The launch of the paid service will let us make leapfrog jumps forward as a global e-Commerce portal site," said CEO Shim Eun-sup. "We will compete with famous trade sites like Global Sources and Alibaba in the global market."