In 2013 Bitcoin was all over the news everywhere including China.
New Chinese capital flooded Chinese exchanges back in November which led to new heights, and finally Chinese banks and government cooled down the "Get-rich-quick" hysteria back in December.
The question im asking my self is; why so few Chinese sellers actually accept Bitcoin for goods, when it fits perfectly for their transactions and they love to get payed via Western Union. They can save a great deal on payment costs and chargeback fraud ( which would result in lower product price ) but also avoiding many limitations they face with current banking systems.
The three obvious obstacles that Chinese sellers face right now may be:
1. The lack of escrow service to offer trust for buyers.
2. Limited acceptance for Bitcoin in the Chinese market.
3. High volatility.
The first would be easier for well known sellers as they already have built their brand name and trust, and would not risk their whole business by stealing few coins. I would even argue that an order payed with Bitcoin would get better after sales support then a credit card customer.
Second, even after the block of 3rd party payment processors on Chinese exchanges people still can easily convert their coins to fiat currency and paying their suppliers with Bitcoin would even further lower their cost.
Third, this is maybe the most critical and risky part for Chinese sellers and manufacturers as their profit margins are only few %. But, Bitcoin payments can easily be coverted into fiat within few min after receiving the payment, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, something they cant do when receiving USD. The USD rate has steadily been dropping since 2010 so no seller want to keep USD longer then they have to.
https://i.imgur.com/uknwsXv.jpgJust like ecommerce platfroms, open source software and Paypal made selling and buying goods directly from the source possible on a global scale, Bitcoin would take this to yet another level by lowering payment costs and cutting out the toughest middle man, Paypal and the banks.
What do you think, do we still need eBay and Paypal in 2015?
Both companies where born out of the need for frictionless transactions between people, but have now grown to a point where the very same companies are now the friction they where created to eliminate.
