Alibaba.com enhances security measures

HANGZHOU - The online commerce operator Alibaba.com Ltd, partly owned by billionaire George Soros, is seeking to further improve the security and quality capabilities of its merchants, a move that will enhance revenue as it expects to make $200 billion this year from the business-to-business platform.

On Tuesday Alibaba.com signed an agreement with London-based Intertek, a quality and safety solutions provider to assess its online merchants. The agreement came following the termination of about 1,200 suppliers in the third quarter from Alibaba.com's export-oriented Gold Supplier program. The cooperation with Intertek is also part of Alibaba's effort to crackdown on quality problems in online trading, which it aims to further improve customer experience and foster value-added services in the long run. "More than 74.5 percent of online buyers don't believe the information given by the suppliers," said Peng Yijie, vice-president of Alibaba.com during the signing ceremony, which was held at the e-commerce operator's head office in Hangzhou. He said that more than 90 percent of buyers visit the suppliers or entrust a third party to investigate before finalizing their purchases.

However such investigation is rare, as the majority of local small buyers, including those from abroad, could not afford the time and money to do so.