Alimama - China's 1st Ad Exchange

In a clever move to further tap into it's country-wide base of SME customers, Alibaba has launched China's first online advertising exchange and they're calling it "Alimama" (阿里妈妈).

Although there are questions about whether the market size can support such an exchange - China's online ad spend for 2006 was estimated at US$4.6 billion as compared to the US at $15.9 billion - there is no doubt in my mind that if you have the advertisers, the websites will come. Especially in an emerging internet market like China, where website owners are hungry for other revenue sources apart from Google Adsense.

As an aside, it's also a smart move by Jack Ma as he prepares his Alibaba empire for an IPO in Hong Kong later on this year.