Wine on the Internet in China

18Jul2012

The Culture of Liquor in China

The history of liquor in China could date back to 3000 years ago, in the dynasties of Xia and Shang. In the Chinese culture, liquor has long become an indispensable part of people’s life. In the past, liquor was associated with artistic creation, disease curing, health maintenance and etiquette. In the present age, people drink liquor to gain happy feelings, to forget sorrow and to boost courage. Today, more and more Chinese taste wine as a way of experiencing the wine culture from the west.

French Wine Comes to China through the Internet

The ecommerce of wine business in China started in 2006, and the transaction size of the market in 2011 was 1.76 billion RMB. France is the world famous production place for wine. It not only has the largest production every year but also produces some of the best kinds of wine in the world. With the popularity of the internet, French wine has come to China through many websites. Some of the popular sites are yesmywine.com, winenice.com, vinshare.com.

A Brief Comparison between yesmywine.com and winenice.com

Yesmywine.com was founded in June, 2008. It is now the biggest B2C sales platform for imported wine. The company is also the first to set up a three-dimensional service system of “magazine, poster, phone call, internet, email, text-message, wine-tasting party, and personal service assistant”. Winenice.com was founded in February, 2008. It is the first one to create a direct sales platform of imported wine. The company’s predecessor was a French wine importer, which mainly sells wine from Bordeaux.

Trends for Online Wine Business in China

The first trend is to create personalized brand and to set up personal styles because for the liquor market brand acts as an important factor to attract customers. Secondly, with the improvement of people’s living standard, the level of products they seek in the market enhances. Many people look for middle to high-grade wine to buy as gifts. Thirdly, companies need to flexibly react to the development of market need, paying attention to specific market segments, such as wine for wedding use and business use.