B5M.COM

About B5M.COM

B5M.COM, whose name is a pun for "help me buy" in Chinese, operates as a comprehensive shopping search portal tailored for the Chinese market. Founded in November 2007 by serial entrepreneur Yeogirl Yun, the company was established to provide Chinese consumers with a tool for making informed purchasing decisions. Yeogirl Yun's prior experience includes founding other search and comparison shopping engines like mySimon.com, Wisenut.com, and Become.com in the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, providing a strong foundation for B5M's technological approach.

The platform functions as a social shopping search engine, combining product data with community features to deliver unbiased search results. It aggregates and indexes a vast amount of information, including over 300 million product listings, user comments, merchant reviews, and articles related to social shopping from thousands of e-commerce sites. The business model is centered on directing consumer traffic to its partner e-commerce websites, which include major players like JingDong, Amazon China, and Dangdang. The service is accessible through its main website, a browser plugin, and dedicated PC and mobile applications. B5M serves the general consumer market in China, operating within the competitive e-commerce and online marketplace sector by providing an independent search alternative.

The company has secured significant financial backing to fuel its growth. In February 2012, B5M announced a Series A funding round of $7.1 million, led by Oak Investment Partners and Giosis Holdings. This was followed by a Series B round in October 2013, which raised $16 million, led by ClearVue Partners with continued participation from Oak Investment Partners. These investments were aimed at website development, marketing, and overall expansion within the Chinese market. The LinkedIn profile associated with B5M belongs to iZenetech Inc., which is connected to the cross-border e-commerce platform Gshopper, indicating a potential evolution or restructuring of the business.