Alibaba Partners with Leading Credit Service Companies to Provide Alibaba’s TrustPass service for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

Beijing-September 10, 2001-

Alibaba.com (www.alibaba.com), the world's largest business-to-business marketplace for global trade, announced today the official launch of TrustPass, an innovative new service to allow small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME's) to build trust online.


The number one issue in B2B e-business--Trust
Alibaba's TrustPass was designed to help remove the number one obstacle to online B2B commerce-lack of trust. 90% of businesspeople conducting business online cite "Trust" as the most important factor in finding partners online, ahead of "Quality" and "Price," according to an Alibaba survey. This concurs with growing industry recognition that trust has emerged as the most important need for online B2B commerce.

Globally trusted Authentication and Verification Service

As part of the TrustPass service, Alibaba is working with Asian Company Profiles Ltd, Huaxia Credit and Dun & Bradstreet to provide A&V service. A&V allows an Alibaba member with TrustPass to establish and demonstrate that 1) the member's company is a legal entity and 2) the member is a representative of the company. A&V is particularly valuable in online commerce where businesses operate in an otherwise anonymous environment. Without TrustPass, it is difficult for businesspeople to differentiate between quality partners and others who may be interested in securing proprietary product and company information with no real intention of closing a deal.

What is TrustPass?

TrustPass is an interactive trust profile for businesspeople to build trust online. TrustPass is designed to help businesspeople win trust, know their partners and display their credibility online.

Each TrustPass profile displays third party reference information from trusted credit service companies, customers and other Alibaba members. TrustPass also allows companies to post customer references, certificates and awards to demonstrate their credibility to other members. For a full explanation of TrustPass features and benefits, visit the online TrustPass demo at http://www.alibaba.com/demo/trustpass/welcome.html.


A First for B2B e-Commerce: Partner Feedback Forum

TrustPass' most innovative feature is the use of an open Feedback Forum, a live online platform in which members with TrustPass can view and post comments on the quality and service levels of other members. In this open system, common in B2C models but a first for B2B models, members are rated on a series of performance variables. To insure credibility and accountability, only TrustPass members may post and view comments and their identity is openly displayed.

"TrustPass is the businessperson's passport to trust online," said Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba.com. "We asked our members what they wanted most in creating opportunities online and the answer was 'trust.' With TrustPass, we're pleased to announce a new era of trust in online B2B commerce for SME's."


"TrustPass will provide companies which are exporting and/or importing throughout Asia the ability to instantly remove the barrier of dealing with unknown entities," said David Hill, Director of Strategic Alliances at Asian Company Profiles. "Authentication & Verification ("A&V") of corporate entities remains critical to all successful international transactions and hence access to electronic information tools enabling companies to accurately identify potential trading partners is paramount to B2B dealings. The decision by Alibaba.com to provide it's members with the Asian Company Profiles' A&V product is a strategic and important move towards the development and growth of the B2B industry in Asia."


About Asian Company Profiles Ltd

Asian Company Profiles Ltd (ACP) is a subsidiary of the FBR Group of companies, market leaders in providing Asian corporate credit reports and business intelligence to international businesses operating in Asia. ACP has been operating in Asia for more than 25 years.

ACP owns and operates one of the largest privately owned databases (known as AsianCIS) and with an excess of 1.3 terabytes of information on companies and business executives throughout Asia/Pacific. AsianCIS is supported by a fully integrated network of data collection centers in 19 Asian/Pacific countries and up-dated at the rate of 3.5 million data fields every month.


AsianCIS forms the foundation for supplying customers worldwide with the following information products:

• Corporate Credit Reporting on Asian companies.
• Identification and qualification of potential customers in Asia.
• Industry ratings and ranking of companies in each Asian country.
• Enhancing and expanding customized mini-databases for clients' in-house/intranet application.
• B2B portal content licensing.

Huaxia Credit

Huaxia is a leading provider of business and consumer credit information and ratings, as well as training courses on risk management and market research in China.

About Alibaba.com

Alibaba.com is the world's largest online business-to-business marketplace for global trade and host to China's leading domestic B2B trade community. Alibaba.com's vision is to become the number one destination for buyers and sellers at small- and medium- sized enterprises (SME's) to find trade opportunities and promote their businesses online.

Alibaba.com's Web properties have over 750,000 registered members from over 200 countries. Alibaba.com was recently selected by Forbes magazine as "Best of the Web: B2B" in 2000 and 2001 and selected as the most popular B2B website by readers of the Far Eastern Economic Review.


Alibaba.com is headquartered in Hong Kong with branch offices in mainland China, Taipei, Silicon Valley, London and Seoul.


Alibaba.com's institutional investors include Softbank, Goldman Sachs, Transpac Capital, Fidelity Capital, Venture TDF, Pte Ltd of Singapore and Investor AB of Sweden.