Taobao

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Taobao Marketplace
File:Taobao Marketplace.jpg
Taobao Marketplace logo
Type of site
C2C and E-commerce
Available inChinese
OwnerAlibaba Group
URLwww.taobao.com
CommercialYes

Taobao Marketplace (simplified Chinese: 淘宝网; traditional Chinese: 淘寶網; pinyin: Táobǎo Wǎng) is a Chinese language web site for online shopping, similar to eBay and Amazon,[2] operated in the People's Republic of China by Alibaba Group.

Founded by Alibaba Group in May 10th 2003, Taobao Marketplace facilitates consumer-to-consumer (C2C) retail by providing a platform for small businesses and individual entrepreneurs to open online retail stores that mainly cater to consumers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.[3]

Sellers are able to post new and used goods for sale on the Taobao Marketplace either through a fixed price or by auction. The overwhelming majority of the products on Taobao Marketplace are brand new merchandise sold at a fixed price; auctions make up a very small percentage of transactions. Buyers can judge the sellers’ credit from their selling prestige, or the history of comment and complaint.

History

Taobao Marketplace (formerly "Taobao") was launched in May 2003 by Alibaba Group after eBay acquired Eachnet, China’s online auction leader at the time, for US$180 million and became the major player in the Chinese consumer e-commerce market.[4] To counter eBay’s expansion, Taobao offered free listings to sellers and introduced website features designed to better cater to local consumers, such as an instant messaging tool for facilitating buyer-seller communication and an escrow-based payment tool, Alipay. As a result, Taobao became the undisputed market leader in mainland China within two years. Its market share jumped from 8% to 59% between 2003 and 2005, while eBay China's slid from 79% to 36%.[5] eBay had to shut down its own site in China in 2006.

In April 2008, Taobao introduced a dedicated B2C platform called Taobao Mall to complement its C2C marketplace. Since then, Taobao Mall has established itself as the destination for quality, brand name goods for Chinese consumers. Taobao Mall launched an independent web domain, tmall.com, and enhanced its focus on product verticals and improvements in shopping experience in November 2010. It became an independent business in June 2011 and changed its Chinese name to Tian Mao (Tmall) in January 2012.

In 2008, Taobao also announced the “Big Taobao” strategy with the aim of becoming a provider of e-commerce infrastructure services for all e-commerce market participants, hence fueling the overall growth of the online shopping industry.

In October 2010, Taobao beta launched eTao as an independent online shopping search engine, providing product and merchant information from a number of major consumer e-commerce websites in China.

In June 2011, Alibaba Group Chairman and CEO Jack Ma revealed that Taobao will be split into three different companies:,Taobao Marketplace (a C2C platform), Tmall.com (a B2C platform; then called Taobao Mall), and eTao (a shopping search engine). The move was said to be necessary for Taobao to “meet competitive threats that emerged in the past two years during which the Internet and e-commerce landscape has changed dramatically.”[6]

Services & Features

Alipay

Alipay (simplified Chinese: 支付宝; traditional Chinese: 支付寶; pinyin: Zhīfùbǎo), an escrow-based online payment platform, is the preferred payment solution for transactions on Taobao Marketplace.

AliWangWang

A distinctive feature of shopping on Taobao Marketplace is the pervasive communication between buyer and seller prior to the purchase through its embedded proprietary instant chat program, named AliWangWang (Chinese: 阿里旺旺; pinyin: ĀlǐWàngWàng). It has become a habit among Chinese online shoppers to “chat” with the sellers or their customer service team through AliWangWang to inquire about products, engage in bargaining, etc., prior to purchasing products.

Happy Taobao

In Dec. 2009, Taobao together with Hunan TV set up Happy Taobao, Inc for television shopping. Not only did Hunan TV launch an entertainment called "Happy Taobao", Taobao Marketplace created channel and independent website, both of which were combine electronic commercial with TV media.

Others

Taobao Marketplace has introduced various new features and services in recent years to create a more holistic user experience for online shoppers and retailers. For instances, it launched the Taobao App Store in January 2010 to provide Taobao merchants and consumers with applications created by independent developers through the Taobao Open Platform;[7] in March 2010, it introduced the Taobao Data Cube platform, which gives small businesses access to its aggregate consumer transactions data for insight into key industry trends;[8] and in June 2010, it partnered with Wasu Media Internet Limited to launch a digital entertainment products platform Taohua and interactive digital television shopping, which are operated by a joint-venture formed by the two companies.[9].

Metrics

Taobao Marketplace currently has more than 370 million registered users as of the end of 2010 and currently hosts more than 800 million product listings.[10] it facilitated approximately RMB200 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2009[11] . In May 2012, Taobao ranked 14th overall in Alexa's internet rankings.[12]

Financials

In 2009 Taobao saw advertising revenues of $220 million. Advertising accounts for a majority of Taobao's income. Analysts believe Taobao's turnover exceeded 400 billion RMB in 2010 and revenues surpassed 5 billion RMB.[13]

References

  1. ^ "Taobao.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2012-06-02.
  2. ^ "淘宝网=eBay+乐天+亚马逊 (Taobao=eBay+Rakuten+Amazon)" (in Chinese). 国际金融报. 9 Jul 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2011.
  3. ^ "Taobao.com launches online shopping mall". china.org.cn. 2008-01-15. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  4. ^ ""eBay China Rumors". Search Engine Journal. September 26, 2006".
  5. ^ ""China's pied piper". The Economist. September 21, 2006". The Economist. September 21, 2006.
  6. ^ Bloomberg. June 16, 2011.
  7. ^ ""Taobao Launches New Taobao App Store". Alibaba Group. January 15, 2010".
  8. ^ "Taobao to Help Small Businesses Grow More Effectively". Alibaba Group. March 31, 2010".
  9. ^ ""Taobao and Wasu Media Launch Digital Entertainment Products Platform, Digital Television Shopping to Broaden Consumer Choice". Alibaba Group. June 29, 2010".
  10. ^ [1]
  11. ^ "Alibaba Group Company Overview". Retrieved 8 May 2012.
  12. ^ Alexa Top 500 Global Sites
  13. ^ Shanghai & Shenzhen Market Wrap: Taobao, Stainless Steel, Li Ning, Yanjing Beer – source”. The China Perspective. January 17, 2011.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Taobao&oldid=495549587"