| URL | www.taobao.com |
|---|---|
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | C2C and B2C |
| Available language(s) | Chinese |
| Owner | Alibaba Group |
| Launched | May 2003 |
| Alexa rank | 12 (January 2012[update])[1] |
| Current status | Active |
Taobao (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, Rakuten and Amazon,[2] operated in the People's Republic of China by Alibaba Group.
Founded by Alibaba Group in May 2003, Taobao facilitates business-to-consumer (B2C) and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) retail by providing a platform for businesses and individual entrepreneurs to open online retail stores that mainly cater to consumers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.[3]
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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. In November 2010, Taobao Mall launched an independent web domain, tmall.com, with an enhanced focus on product verticals and improvements in shopping experience. The site currently features products from more than 30,000 major multinational and Chinese brands.
In May 2010, Taobao and Yahoo Japan launched a cross-border retail initiative that allows Chinese consumers to purchase Japanese products from Yahoo Japan shopping and Japanese consumers to purchase Chinese products from Taobao. For the Chinese consumers, Taobao launched a Chinese-language portal called TaoJapan offering Japanese products. For Japanese consumers, Yahoo Japan added a Japanese-language portal called "China Mall" to its shopping platform. However, in line with import/export restrictions in both countries, certain products are not available to non-local buyers; for example, mobile phones listed on Yahoo Auctions are not carried over to TaoJapan and certain name-brand goods listed on Taobao do not carry over to Yahoo Japan's China Mall.
In October 2010, Taobao beta launched eTao as an independent online shopping search engine, providing product and merchant information from all 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: eTao (to be used for shopping searches), Taobao Mall (a B2C platform), and Taobao Marketplace (a C2C platform).[6]
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 are brand new merchandise sold at a fixed price; auctions make up a very small percentage of transactions.
Taobao Mall (simplified Chinese: 淘宝商城; traditional Chinese: 淘寶商城; pinyin: Táobǎo Shāngchéng) was first introduced by Alibaba Group in April 2008 as a dedicated B2C platform within Taobao. Since then, Taobao Mall has established itself as an online gateway for leading local and global brands to reach out to the growing Chinese consumer base as well as the destination for domestic online shoppers to purchase quality, brand name goods.
In November 2010, Taobao Mall introduced an independent web domain, tmall.com, to differentiate listings by Taobao Mall merchants, who are either brand owners or authorized distributors, from Taobao’s C2C merchants. Meanwhile, it kicked off a US$30 million advertising campaign to raise brand awareness among consumers.[7] It also announced an enhanced focus on product verticals and improvements in shopping experience.
Brands that have established flagship stores on Taobao Mall include P&G, adidas, UNIQLO, GAP, Nine West, Reebok, Ray-Ban, New Balance, Umbro, Lenovo, Dell, Nokia, Philips, Samsung, Logitech and Lipton.
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.
A distinctive feature of shopping on Taobao 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 prior to purchase products.
Taobao has introduced various new features and services in recent years. 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;[8] 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;[9] 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.[10].
In October 2011, Taobao has experienced two successive waves of online rioting[11] since it significantly increased fees on online vendors [12]. The service fees raised from 6,000 yuan ($940) to as much as 60,000 yuan ($9,400) a year, and a compulsory fixed sum deposit gone from 10,000 yuan ($1,570) to up to 150,000 yuan ($23,500)[13]
Taobao reported more than 370 million registered users as of the end of 2010 and currently hosts more than 800 million product listings.[14] In May 2011, Taobao ranked 15th overall in Alexa's internet rankings.[15]
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.[16]
In January 2010, Alibaba Group said it expects gross merchandise volume on Taobao to double from 200 billion Chinese yuan in 2009 to 400 billion Chinese yuan in 2010, as China’s e-commerce market is expected to grow significantly in the next five to eight years.[17]