I changed my mind about what buyers need in China sourcing

I used to think the problem in China sourcing was lack of supplier data.

After working on MapleBridge, I think that was wrong.

Most buyers already have too many options: Alibaba, Made-in-China, Global Sources, agents, trade shows, LinkedIn. The harder part is turning a messy buying need into a brief a supplier can actually respond to.

A few things I keep seeing:

• MOQ decides fit earlier than people think
• "factory vs trading company" is not always obvious
• export experience to the US/Canada matters
• vague specs create bad supplier replies
• buyers often start searching before they know what they are asking for

So we are building MapleBridge around a brief-first workflow:

buyer writes one structured sourcing brief -> matching checks product fit, MOQ, certification and export readiness -> then supplier conversations start.

It is early, but this feels more useful than building another searchable supplier directory.

For context, this is the project: https://maplebridge.io/blog-find-suppliers-without-alibaba

Curious if other marketplace/B2B founders have seen the same thing: does better intake beat more listings?