Alibaba had begun experimenting with revenue schemes from a revenue category it called online marketing service, which included offerings such as the preferential placement and presentation of SME bids and offers on its sites, and banner ads by vertical segment created by Alibaba for its members. These service were more dependent on higher Alibaba website traffic and less relevant to its B2B model.In addition, Alibaba expected some limited income from the design and sale of banner ads for its members and rolled out an online sales center in early April 2000 to allow companies to create and post their own banner ads in the appropriate product category. Finally, Alibaba earned revenue on an ad hoc basis from the design of websites for companies lacking access to job shops within China. The advantage of this large membership base became obvious: by presenting a global forum for members from 200 countries to advertise their wares, member numbers and advertiser interest would snowball.