Made-in-China.com: who runs it and who sells on it

Factories and traders mixed. Focus Technology's 2025 Annual Report targets "foreign-trade enterprises" and runs a separate program for factory-type members, so traders sell alongside factories.

Is Made-in-China.com legit, and who are you buying from?

Made-in-China.com is a legitimate business-to-business export marketplace: it is operated by Focus Technology Co., Ltd. (焦点科技股份有限公司) of Nanjing, a company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange since 9 December 2009 (stock code 002315) that publishes audited annual reports. As with any marketplace, the operator being real does not make each seller reliable, and the platform's "Audited Supplier" mark is a paid service, not an independent factory audit.

The sellers are a mix. Focus Technology's 2025 Annual Report, published 20 March 2026, describes the platform as helping "Chinese small and medium-sized foreign-trade enterprises" (中国中小型外贸企业) market themselves internationally. A foreign-trade enterprise is any company that exports, which includes trading companies as well as manufacturers. The same report describes a separate "Benchmark Factory" (标杆工厂) program for "quality factory-type enterprises," which would be unnecessary if every member were a factory. The verdict is therefore "factories and traders mixed," and the buyer has to establish which kind each supplier is.

Who operates Made-in-China.com

Focus Technology is headquartered at No. 7 Lijing Road, Jiangbei New Area, Nanjing. Its listing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange was approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC approval 证监许可〔2009〕1014号). The annual report says the company has operated "since its founding in 1998" (自 1998 年创立以来) but does not give a launch date for the Made-in-China.com website itself, and there is no English Wikipedia article on the platform. The company's own filings are the primary record.

Made-in-China.com is the core of the business, but not all of it. Focus Technology also operates xyz.cn, an insurance platform, and Doba (doba.com), a US dropshipping platform.

The name invites two confusions. Made-in-China.com is a company's marketplace; it has no connection to the generic "made in China" country-of-origin phrase, and none to "Made in China 2025," the State Council industrial strategy issued in May 2015.

How membership and Audited Supplier work

The membership model is the same one Alibaba.com uses: suppliers pay an annual fee, recorded in Focus Technology's accounts as "network information technology services," to list products and receive buyer inquiries. Buyers use the site free. A membership shows that a supplier pays to be listed. It says nothing about whether the supplier makes what it sells.

Audited Supplier (认证供应商) is a second paid layer. Focus Technology's revenue-recognition note in the 2025 Annual Report defines it as "a non-mandatory audit and certification service" in which "relevant experts or the Company" conduct an on-site or remote audit of a paying member. The audit confirms basic company information and assesses "production capability, foreign-trade capability, continuous quality improvement" and other aspects. Revenue is recognized when the audit report is issued and published on Made-in-China.com. Three features of that definition matter to a buyer:

• The supplier pays for it. The audit is a product the platform sells to the member, not an inspection commissioned by the buyer.
• It may be remote. The report does not have to rest on a physical visit.
• The auditor is not named. The report refers to "experts or the Company" and names no third-party audit firm.

The published audit report is useful evidence about a company's registration and stated capacity. It does not test a buyer's product, and it is not a substitute for a buyer-commissioned factory audit or a pre-shipment inspection.

In 2025 the company added a Benchmark Factory project, which gives certified factory-type enterprises traffic and ranking benefits. It also sells AI tools: "AI Maike" (AI 麦可) for sellers, purchased by 18,494 members cumulatively as of 31 December 2025, and "Sourcing AI" for buyers. Offline, it runs "BizConnect" events that the company describes as combining matchmaking, factory visits and decision meetings.

Buyer protection and payment

No buyer payment-protection program comparable to Alibaba.com's Trade Assurance could be confirmed for Made-in-China.com. The 2025 Annual Report mentions expanding online transaction services, including multi-currency receipt and logistics, but terms for any buyer-protection program were not found in the documents reviewed.

In practice, this means a buyer should assume that payment terms are whatever is negotiated with the supplier, and that recourse for a failed order rests on the purchase contract and the payment method chosen (for example a letter of credit, where the bank pays only against specified documents) rather than on a platform guarantee. Any claim by a supplier that the platform protects a payment should be checked against current written terms from Focus Technology before money moves.

Scale, from Focus Technology's filings

The 2025 Annual Report Summary gives the key figure: Made-in-China.com had 29,793 paying members as of 31 December 2025, up 2,378 year over year. That counts paying suppliers only; Focus does not report buyer numbers or buyer countries in the documents reviewed.

Focus Technology's 2025 revenue figures appear in two forms, and they differ by definition:

• The audit note gives total operating revenue (营业总收入) of RMB 1,921.13 million, up 15.12%.
• The summary's key-figures table gives operating revenue (营业收入) of RMB 1,913.6 million, up 15.22%.

Of the RMB 1,921.13 million, Made-in-China.com membership services contributed RMB 1,557.25 million and Audited Supplier services RMB 131.96 million, together 87.93% of revenue, per the auditor's key audit matters. Net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 504 million, up 11.61%. The breakdown confirms where the money comes from: suppliers paying to be listed and to be audited.

The company reports that platform traffic grew 33% in 2025, with the Middle East and Latin America each up 44%, Africa up 38%, South Asia up 35% and Europe up 32%. These are company-reported figures. In April 2025 Focus launched a "New Voyage Plan" (新航海计划) to steer suppliers toward emerging markets in response to tariff volatility in traditional markets.

Risks and red flags

• Reading "Audited Supplier" as an independent factory audit. It is a service the supplier buys from the platform, performed by "experts or the Company," and it may be remote.
• Assuming every listing is a factory. The platform's stated audience is foreign-trade enterprises, which include trading companies. A factory claim should be checked against the business license's business scope and an audit of the production site.
• Assuming platform payment protection. No buyer-protection terms were found. The contract and the payment method carry the risk.
• Taking rank as merit. Benchmark Factory status brings traffic and ranking benefits, so search order reflects the platform's own programs as well as relevance.

Who it suits, and how it compares with Alibaba.com

Made-in-China.com suits buyers looking for export-oriented Chinese suppliers, particularly those who want a second source of candidates alongside Alibaba.com. Its supplier base is export-facing by design, and its audit reports give a starting point for verification.

It is the smaller of the two export platforms. Alibaba Group reported over 240,000 paying members for Alibaba.com as of 31 March 2026, against 29,793 for Made-in-China.com at 31 December 2025. The dates are three months apart and the companies define membership differently, so the comparison shows scale rather than an exact ratio. The more practical difference is payment: Alibaba.com's Trade Assurance offers platform-mediated disputes for on-platform payments, and no equivalent was confirmed here.

It suits poorly anyone who needs platform-backed payment protection, and it does nothing for buyers of single retail units. On either platform, the listing is where verification starts: license, business scope, factory audit, and inspection before shipment.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Focus Technology Co., Ltd. via CNINFO — 焦点科技股份有限公司2025年年度报告全文 (Focus Technology 2025 Annual Report, auditor's key audit matters) (2026, PDF)
• Focus Technology Co., Ltd. via CNINFO (Shenzhen Stock Exchange disclosure) — 焦点科技股份有限公司2025年年度报告摘要 (Focus Technology Co., Ltd. 2025 Annual Report Su… (2026, PDF)
• Alibaba Group / U.S. SEC EDGAR — Alibaba Group Form 20-F, FY2026 (2026, HTML-official)