Digital giant Alibaba is looking to build a property marketplace business in China, on the back of its new arrangements with property specialists E-House and Leju, reports the AIM Group (20 August 2020). With existing access to agents and the backend technology through E-House / Leju, the new venture should create a challenge to the country's current leaders in property classifieds – NYSE-listed Fang.com and 58.com-owned Anjuke, as well as the No. 3, Beike. "There are only a handful of players who are able to create this type of end-to-end model," said Georg Chmiel, executive chairman at Juwai IQI, which runs a real estate agent network across Asia and a China-based marketplace for overseas property. "Horizontals are trying but not successfully because they are too broad and work better with commodity, low-value products. Verticals often cannot do it, either, as they run the risk of competing with their customers," added Chmiel.
