The world's leading Internet marketplace for industrial products put its Chinese site online to help its overseas members, including some on the Fortune Global 500 list, find cheap made-in-China industrial parts.

But MFG.com's entrance will increase competition in the e-commerce market in China and may attract some Chinese suppliers in the industrial sector from the country's biggest online marketplace Alibaba.com for its relatively cheaper service and familiarity with overseas buyers.  "We already have some Chinese suppliers paying for our sourcing data and many more have registered for a free trial use," said Mitch Free, president and chief executive officer of US-based MFG.com.

Currently there are only about 100 Chinese companies paying US$5,000 a year for its service. But it said thousands of other Chinese suppliers had registered for a free three-month trial. Most of them were small- and medium-sized companies, according to Free.

Its unified flat membership fee is cheaper than that of the international trade site of Alibaba.com, which charges between 60,000 yuan (US$7,500) to 200,000 yuan a year.

The Website, founded in 2000 and in which Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos holds a 40 percent stake, has nearly 100,000 members, including more than 100 companies on the Fortune Global 500 list.  "The problem now is we have the buyers, but not enough Chinese suppliers in the system," he said, adding that he expected the number of Chinese suppliers to reach 1,000 next year.  The figure is expected to increase to 10,000 within five years, which is roughly the registered number of Chinese companies on the international trade site of Alibaba.com, according to Alibaba's customer service hotline.

Source:未知