Ask most people about Alibaba and you’ll likely be met with scratching heads. A lot of people have heard the name, but only a few folks seem to know that Alibaba is a Chinese company that offers a directory service for Chinese manufacturers and suppliers. I had watched some sort of documentary a few months back that played up the vastness of Alibaba’s directory and how through a couple clicks of your mouse, you too could can find a suitable Chinese supplier for just about any type of good you want to manufacture or sell.

Alibaba makes a lot of sense. I mean let’s face it. Doing business internationally is intimidating. Doing business in China is even more intimidating unless maybe if you’re Chinese and speak the language well. I certainly am not such a person so I know that connecting myself to the right Chinese supplier would be next to impossible without an agent to help me. From what I’ve been told, such agents can be quite expensive and because of biases (read: kickbacks), the agent may not even connect you with the optimal supplier for your needs.

Alibaba usurps the need for such an agent and provides someone like me direct access to the suppliers. It’s a simple concept that offers exciting opportunity for creating business relationships between foreign companies and China. Assuming Alibaba works as advertised, it’s no wonder that Yahoo! invested $1bn for a 40% chunk of the company. But, the question is, does it work? Is it really that easy for an average American businessman to locate and work with the right Chinese partner?

For one man’s experience, check out this post by Greg Runco. Greg designed a slipper and was looking for someone to manufacture it. He used Alibaba and describes his experience thus far with the supplier he chose. Greg also has several other interesting posts on his blog. I find his style sort of similar to mine and I enjoyed reading through his posts. Thanks for the introduction Greg!