New Site Promotes French Luxury Labels In China

JENNY BARCHFIELD

PARIS (AP) — A new Web site launched Thursday gives China's 1.3 billion people a chance to ogle French luxury, from designer clothing to diamond-dripping watches and glittering gold jewelry, as part of a bid by French houses to tap into the Asian giant's growing hunger for high-end goods.

In a lavish ceremony at the Chinese embassy's commercial section in Paris, the heads of Christian Dior, Chanel and dozens of other French labels celebrated the launch of the site, www.cColbert.cn.

The site, which is in Chinese, English and French, was developed by the Comite Colbert — a Paris-based organization that represents some 70 French brands — and Sina, China's leading Internet provider, with some 260 million users, a statement said.

In the past, the French luxury labels represented by the Comite Colbert tended to see China — the world's manufacturing hub and a top producer and consumer of counterfeit goods — as something of a foe. But Chinese consumers' ever-growing buying power and appetite for high-end goods have made the country the holy grail for luxury purveyors in France and beyond.

The site features lavish, 3-D photos of French luxury products, from designer clothing and jewelry to high-end hotels and restaurants. The idea is just to whet consumers' appetite for the pricey products and services, because the site doesn't allow for Internet purchases.