Alibaba to launch new project to subsidize SMEs

Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba.com Ltd<1688> plans to launch a project next month to subsidize small and medium companies by using its online services.

From 10 a.m. on Tuesday, interested companies are invited to subscribe for a free trial on caifu.china.alibaba.com, with a quota of 6,188 people. The project has attracted thousands of small and medium-sized companies to sign up when it started to accept applicants within merely an hour.

The free experiencing activity scheduled to start on Apr. 11 will be offering preferential discounts of products to users, the company said on its website.

The project aims to lower the threshold for small and medium firms to use the e-commerce services. At the beginning of this month, Alibaba has been accredited as international domain name service supplier, which is in close correlation with the launching of the new product, David Wei, CEO of Alibaba.com.

The Hong Kong-listed company reported its net profit more than quadrupled to RMB 967.8 million (US$136.3 million) in 2007 from a year earlier due to rapid expansion of paying users.