DHgate said it’s the first Chinese e-commerce company to offer a protection plan and repair service through SquareTrade. “This type of protection for buyers is almost unheard of” in the international cross-border e-commerce market, said DHgate Chief Operating Officer Noah Herschman. The partnership makes SquareTrade protection plans available for cellphones, tablets, computers, digital media players, home AV equipment and other CE products. DHgate CEO Diane Wang said customers, including U.S. consumers, “will have a better shopping experience and post-sales service, while sellers will be able to reduce their service costs and increase their transaction volume.” SquareTrade, based in San Francisco, is a privately held company backed in part by Bain Capital, and its warranties are available with purchases from e-commerce companies including Amazon and eBay. Consumers now can buy during the checkout process SquareTrade protection that includes free return shipping on portable items for any mechanical or electrical failures, DHgate said Monday. Customers can file a claim and have a product repaired within five business days, and customers will be reimbursed for the cost of products that can’t be repaired, DHgate said. Raj Kapoor, senior vice president of SquareTrade North America, called China an “increasingly important market” and said the partnership will enable it to better understand the needs of Chinese suppliers. DHgate has 5.5 million enterprise and consumer customers in more than 200 countries that buy goods from 1.2 million sellers in 33 China provinces, it said. The U.S. accounts for 50 percent of total merchandise sales for DHgate, it said.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation ranked 125 countries on the amount of taxes and duties applied to information and communications technology goods, said ITIF in a report released Monday. Thirty-one countries impose taxes and duties that exceed 5 percent on ICT products, and Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Iran and Turkey are considered the “worst offenders,” said the ITIF. Governments frequently use ICT tariffs "in the mostly vain pursuit of protecting domestic industries" even though "when businesses face extra costs for importing goods, this gets reflected in their subsequent export price -- hurting their competitive position," ITIF said. Goods in the ICT sector are also seen by governments as an easy source of tax revenue because the products are considered as more of a luxury, it said. "These added costs limit ICT adoption and the productivity increases associated with it," it said. "If countries resist the temptation to impose excess taxes on ICT goods and services and eliminate ICT tariffs, they will reap the benefits in broader digital adoption by businesses and consumers, leading to faster economic growth and increased quality of life." The ITIF has spearheaded for years expansion of the Information Technology Agreement. Parties to the ITA, which total in the dozens, haven’t broadened the list of duty exempt products since the agreement’s 1996 inception, despite many IT industry developments.
The election of China’s Houlin Zhao as ITU secretary-general was applauded by ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade, in an ICANN news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1DFCco4). Zhao’s support was “punctuated by the fact that he obtained 152 votes of the 156 countries that were present and voting in the election,” he said. Chehade said he has a "shared belief" with Zhao’s predecessor, Hamadoun Toure, that the "Internet has an increasingly important role in global socioeconomic development ... We are enthused at the prospect of continuing those efforts with Houlin Zhao." Zhao will take over Jan. 1, when Toure's term ends.
The Advanced Media Workflow Association disclosed changes in its membership, in written notifications filed with the U.S. attorney general and the FTC, said a Justice Department notice in Wednesday's Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1ylmueC). Canon U.S.A., Swedish companies Vizrt and Kista, and John Fleming of Australia were added to the organization, while EMC, Encompass, The Weather Co., Andreas Georg Stasheit of Germany and Jone Lee of South Korea withdrew from the association, the notice said.