Tag Archives: Etsy and China

Hello Everyone, I Am A Chinese Seller

Posted in Etsy Resellers, Etsy's Same Old, Same Old by

This forum post from a new Chinese seller was met with sarcasm, bitterness and cruelty. While some pointed out the sarcasm, bitterness and cruelty, others took offense at being accused of such, and others took offense at others being offended; and the bickering continued as the Chinese seller was probably left wondering what the hell he had done to offend so many.

This is the monster Etsy has created.

Etsy, in its overriding desire to become a player in the Chinese market, has embraced all Chinese sellers whether manufacturer, handmaker, reseller, or something in between. It allows Chinese manufacturers and resellers to flourish on the site, pretends not to notice the majority of resellers are from China, and of course, even denies the existence of resellers. And then, it expects the Etsy community to accept all Chinese sellers with a smile and a big, warm welcome.

Unfortunately, there are many Chinese sellers who probably have no idea why all the bitterness toward them. They may believe the Etsy community is anti-China, which is absolutely not the truth. Etsy is an international community and most members enjoy camaraderie with their global counterparts and embrace the commonalities and differences in cultures.

Most members, do not, however, embrace resellers or mass-producers from ANYWHERE. And that is where the sarcasm, bitterness and cruelty comes from. It is brought on by the divisive business practices of a company priding itself on global status.

Etsy PR in a Huff Over HuffPost Live

Posted in Etsy in the News, Etsy Resellers, Etsy's Same Old, Same Old by

In this week’s Q&A, Juliet Gorman, head of Etsy PR, responded to questions about the recent HuffPost Live segment by accusing the HuffPost panel of painting a “sensationalistic” and “xenophobic” picture when suggesting items on Etsy were “pumped out in factories by the hundreds of thousands from China.”  Most would agree there is nothing sensationalistic about the truth, and saying the word “China” does not a xenophobe make.  

Ms. Gorman further admonished the editorial staff at HuffPost for “poor form” in not reaching out to Etsy PR for its point of view, and she admitted disappointment at not being invited to respond to panel criticism, even though Etsy has a reputation for declining comment on criticism.  (Rusetsy thinks the PR head is just mad because there is no way to permamute HuffPo.)

Ms. Gorman said if given the chance, she would have talked about the seller application process for outside manufacturing. To prove her point that Etsy is not being flooded with a “new kind of seller or product,” she stated that only 225 manufacturing applications have been approved thus far. Rusetsy thinks she shot herself in the foot pulling out that little statistic, considering that the new guidelines were created to accommodate those many, many, many Etsy sellers who without outside assistance would outgrow the site. 225? really?

The focus of the HuffPost panel was resellers, and on this issue Ms. Gorman referenced the Etsy blog post, A Frank Conversation About Resellers. She then took the same old  Etsy stance that there is no problem with resellers; the problem is with sellers, and their misunderstanding and frustration.  Then, in her own show of “poor form” by way of handmade snobbery, Ms. Gorman admitted understanding seller frustration at those who hand assemble items “…they construct with simple mass-manufactured trendy components…”  Yet, Ms. Gorman followed Etsy protocol and defended the “bird lariat necklace” sellers as hand-assemblers, sometimes on a “large scale.”

As one more way of side-stepping the reseller problem, the PR head issued a reminder that Etsy cannot go down the slippery slope of imposing standards of creativity on its sellers.

Good idea.  Etsy could probably not handle any more slippery slopes just now.

Etsy, Inc. – Part One: It’s All About the Guanxi

Posted in Etsy in the News, Etsy's Same Old, Same Old by

In order to gain a better understanding of Etsy.com’s company policies and decisions, one might take a look at who is behind this company; in other words, follow the money:

From VentureBeatProfiles.com:

Date                     Type            Amt.     Investors                                                                                          Value

06/01/06 Seed 0.315M Caterina Fake, Stewart Butterfield, Joshua Schachter, Albert Wenger Unknown
11/01/06 Series A 1M Union Square Ventures Unknown
07/01/07 Series B 3.25M Union Square Ventures Unknown
01/01/08 Series C 27M Accel Partners, Union Square Ventures Unknown
08/01/10 Series D 20M Index Ventures Unknown
05/01/12 Other 40M Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Accel Partners, Burda

From BusinessWeek.com

Chief Executive Officer and Director: Chad Dickerson

Board of Directors:

James W. (Jim) Breyer, Accel Partners (ETA: See this Forbes list)

Caterina Fake, 2bkco, Inc.

Frederick Wilson, Union Square Ventures

Jonathan Klein, Getty Images, Inc.

Christoph Braun, Ph.D.

********

In Etsy, Inc. – Part One, we will take a look at Accel Partners.

First, who is James W. Breyer?

According to Businessweek.com, billionaire Jim Breyer is Co-Founder, President, and Managing Partner of Accel Partners, a venture capital firm with investment teams in the U.S., London, India and China. Accel Partners is the money behind many familiar internet faces. According to Accel’s website, Jim is the Lead (or Co-Lead?) Investor in Etsy.

Jim Breyer is the son of John P. Breyer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of IDG Capital Partners (a part of IDG Ventures),  a venture capital firm based in China. TechCrunch.com described IDG as “one of the pioneers of investing in the Chinese consumer Internet.”  Jim is also on the Board of IDG Capital.

Accel Partners and IDG Capital are partnered through IDG-Accel, based in China. IDG-Accel Growth Fund, L.P. is part of the IDG-Accel Partnership.  From BusinessWeek.com (emphasis added):

IDG-Accel China Growth Fund specializes in seed and startup investments. The fund does not prefer to invest in late-stage companies. It seeks to invest in information technology, healthcare, consumer technologies, and other emerging technologies. Within the consumer Internet sector, the fund targets companies in the media, social networking, and search and online retail sectors. Within the information technology sector, it seeks to invest in semiconductors, software, and networking. The fund seeks to invest in companies based in China. It seeks to invest between $4 million and $8 million in companies with revenues between $3 million and $5 million and staff in range of 300 and 400. The fund …

*****

A relevant Etsy forum post (emphasis added):

Global Street Handmade:Kellan,Accel Partners is one of the venture capital firms that owns Etsy. Accel Partners is also teamed up with IDG Capital, a firm based in China. IDG-Accel is dedicated to growth for Chinese companies. Could you address how this might effect Etsy decisions about what is allowed to be sold here and what entities are allowed to sell?
That is, there have been many concerns along the lines of 16 different shops offering the same “bubble necklace” for sale. No offense meant to any specific country, but most of those shops are based in China. Etsy does not close down these obvious-to-most reseller shops and indicates most of them have passed muster. Yet Etsy’s own policy is that no resellers are allowed, in direct conflict with what is actually going on.
So, it begs the question, is Etsy, like IDG-Accel, dedicated to growth for Chinese companies at the expense of the small businesses who helped grow this site?

Hi Global,Fascinating question. The short version is, it has no effect whatsoever.We’ve certainly talked to our partners at Accel about our international expansion goals, but to the extent we’ve talked with them about China their focus at the time was on how to sell into the fastest growing online consumer market on the planet, not the other way around.

We’ve never talked to IDG about our policies or strategies.

And none of our policies and strategy around resellers, manufacturing assistance, or seller growth (in the US, China or elsewhere) are shaped by our relationship with Accel.

Thanks
Kellan

Thank you Kellan. So, if I’m understanding this correctly, the Board of Directors does not make decisions on Etsy policy? That is left entirely up to Administration?
That (d)oesn’t aswer the question Kellan.
Admin
sy2010, you’re right, on my 2nd reading it doesn’t.On my first reading I thought Global was specifically asking about Accel/IDG influencing Etsy strategy, rather then whether Etsy was pursuing a similar strategy.
No, Etsy isn’t following a strategy of supporting Chinese companies over small sellers.

My interpretation is that Kellan  is saying Accel’s focus is on (Etsy) selling into the Chinese market, not vice versa.  Wouldn’t inviting more Chinese companies to sell on Etsy go toward this goal? And wouldn’t allowing Chinese resellers to flourish on the site be “supporting Chinese companies over small sellers?”

So, can Etsy succeed where eBay failed?

From CNBC.com, regarding eBay’s failure in China (emphasis added):

Spend any time in China, and you quickly learn the power of “guanxi,” or social connections. Guanxi drives business deals and government contracts. It’s the invisible glue that ties people together. It’s the sense of connection and mutual obligation that Chinese society prizes in personal relationships…

…The problem was that eBay had no mechanism for simulating guanxi…

…”Those buyers really want to get to know the sellers,” Paul A. Pavlou, a professor at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, told Pacific Standard.

In China, business is not just business. It’s social…

Dear readers, this needs no further explanation than “I refer you to Etsy’s New Guidelines.”

In Etsy, Inc. – Part Two, we will delve into Union Square Ventures. (Stay tuned. The plot thickens.)