Kinofy Group launches platform to help firms enter China market
Singapore
SINGAPORE companies keen to break into China's massive e-commerce market can now do so through a new one-stop platform.
Called Kinofy, the platform allows companies to manage products and inventory across multiple sales channels, as well as process orders and payments.
It was launched on Wednesday by Kinofy Group, a spinoff of health and beauty company Kino Biotech.
Kinofy is built on the popular WeChat platform, which means brand owners can establish their own shop on WeChat. This helps foreign brands break into China's one-billion-strong consumer market.
This significantly shortens the time foreign brands need to enter China, from the usual one to two years to 2.5 months, according to Kinofy Group.
"Speed to market is important. We will be able to bring our merchants speed to market into China itself. That is number one. By bringing local merchants in, they can leverage on us to operate a business in China through our Kinofy platform," said co-founder Kawee Chong.
Foreign companies typically spend at least S$300,000 to build up a presence in China. With Kinofy, they only need to foot a yearly subscription fee of S$36,000.
Mr Chong also said that local companies will enjoy a 70 per cent subsidy for their first year subscription to the platform by way of a grant from SkillsFuture Singapore.
"When it comes to leveraging e-commerce, smaller companies might be hesitant to start due to the lack of resources, technical skills or scale as well as difficulties in coordinating processes for e-commerce fulfilment," noted Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran, who was guest of honour at Kinofy's launch event.
He also said that more experienced industry players with specialised capabilities such as Kinofy can benefit smaller businesses by taking the lead to establish e-commerce platforms.
Close to 50 brands are already on the Kinofy platform, including Kinohimitsu, Esthemedica and Naturext.
The company is focusing on bringing international brands to China, but Mr Chong said that there are plans to expand the platform to bring Chinese brands into Singapore and other international markets, particularly in South-east Asia.
Mr Iswaran also mentioned that the platform is a good example of collaboration between enterprises.
"This is part of the ethos and effort that we are embarking on, that we have collaboration between enterprises, and between the private and public sectors as we embark on this journey of internationalisation to help our companies secure new markets and scale up," he noted.
