A whole new world of fine art online(2)

Too early for impressions

Online bidding is relatively low-cost to set up, while commission charges for online sales of fine art average roughly 10 percent of the transaction value, less than the minimum 15 percent for that at offline auctions, according to Yidianchina's Lü.

He added that the much bigger platform provided by online fine art sales is also advantageous in that is easily and quickly enables a larger buyer-base, which is key to remaining competitive in the industry, he said.

Lü said his company's latest surveys indicate that the biggest growth in China's buyer-base today comes from art consumers in second and third-tier cities, the price ceiling for whom often tops out at around 50,000 yuan. He said that these novice fine art lovers have been popping up in recent years, providing great opportunities for big e-commerce sites to join a wave that is already being ridden by professional fine art online marketplaces that target more upscale buyers.

But, it is still too soon to predict the outcome of the bourgeoning market, Dong Duanduan, a Beijing-based industry insider, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Hit by the faltering global economic recovery and a cooling Chinese economy, China's auction market netted transactions amounting to 575.47 billion yuan for 2012, a drop of 8.15 percent year-on-year, according to March figures released by the Ministry of Commerce.

In all, transactions for cultural and fine art items saw a 51.53 percent decline from the previous year, dropping 27.93 billion yuan last year. The online auction market, meanwhile, only managed 1.14 billion yuan. Separate data for cultural and fine art online auction sales were not included in the figures.

Dong noted that a key impediment to winning over fine art consumers via the Internet will be convincing them of the sale items' authenticity, especially for traditional e-commerce platforms seeking ambitious and risky expansion in the cultural arena.

The country has currently no specific laws and regulations protecting online auction buyers from potential investment traps, she noted.

Even Amazon spokesman Erik Fairleigh admits that "Amazon is not providing an ironclad guarantee of authenticity," according to a New York Times report on August 6, when the US online retail giant re-entered the industry with Amazon Art.

In 1999, Amazon had a run on a short-lived online art selling program with giant auction house Sotheby's.

While Amazon's return to the battlefield with more than 40,000 works of fine art from over 150 galleries and dealers, according to Amazon Art, is a much bigger venture compared to its Chinese counterparts, market hopefuls are counting on it to help spur a fine art online push in China.

But even if Amazon Art is able to tap into China's market, Lü at Yidianchina doubted it would have much of an impact on domestic online marketplaces given Chinese art tastes.

"It won't be easy for Amazon Art to localize in China since most Chinese collectors prefer to shop online for works by Chinese artists, which makes its huge stockpiles of Western resources not that attractive to local customers," he said.