Envelopment-competition Pattern of E-Business Platform -- Insights from the Competition among Taobao, Baidu and Tencent

Under reconstructing the operation pattern of traditional economy with information technology, new business rules and competition logic emerge from internet industry, especially the envelopment-competition pattern in e-commerce field. This paper took the envelopment-competition behaviors of Taobao, Baidu, and Tencent as examples, deeply studied the envelopment-competition pattern of E-business platforms. Firstly, the formation mechanism of envelopment phenomenon among the three platforms was analyzed based on current situation. It indicates that user intersection has enormous influence on platform envelopment or being enveloped. Then we analyzed active or passive envelopment-competition behaviors among the three platforms. Finally, the competition trend of E-business platforms was proposed: Taobao, Tencent, and Baidu should expand to peripheral industries on the basis of keeping their core competences, and form a situation of tripartite confrontation.