tdctrade.com gives buyers and suppliers a way to connect

With up to 5.5 million hits per day, the site topped the rankings in six of the seven categories, including provision of buy/ sell/ match facilitation, Hong Kong and international market information, China market information, trade events information, usability, and business impact. The survey asked respondents from 12 regions and countries in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and Americas about their usage habit and pattern.

Commenting on the accolade, TDC's deputy executive director, Anna Lai, said tdctrade.com had been the website of choice during the recent Sars outbreak. "At the peak of the Sars outbreak, many overseas buyers were reluctant to travel. Tdctrade.com gave buyers and suppliers a way to connect."

tdctrade.com first went online in 2000 and has since established itself as the largest online source of business information on Hong Kong and China. It offers links in ten languages including English, Chinese, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic.

New features countered effects of Sars

Along with tdctrade.com's regular features - market intelligence, industry and city profiles and online sourcing guides and business matching - when Sars struck the Hong Kong Trade Development Council immediately added extra features to cater for the decline in business travel and trade fair events.

Production in southern China and export services in Hong Kong remained largely unaffected by the Sars outbreak. The challenge was to ensure that orders continued to come in from international buyers. Following the refusal of the Swiss authorities to allow Hong Kong exhibitors to conduct business at this year's Basel Watch & Jewellery Fair, a virtual exhibition was created, within 24 hours, and hosted on tdctrade.com. More than 15,000 visitors have since visited the Hong Kong exhibitors online.

Other initiatives included a "Web Conference Centre" which allowed buyers and suppliers to continue face-to-face meetings online and an increasingly sophisticated online product sourcing facility, that allowed overseas users to view products, make virtual tours of factories and place orders. 

Another essential communications tool was the Sars news section which was created to offer daily updates from authoritative sources in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. Business contacts found the information an essential balance to many of the alarmist media reports.  A new Rebound Hong Kong section will be introduced very soon to provide updates on CEPA, trade news and upcoming events in Hong Kong, and will feature articles and webcasts from international business leaders.