Taobao.com grows despite economic downturn

Posted by Aliuser on Feb 11, 2009 in C2C marketplace

Becoming one of the largest beneficiaries of Internet explosive growth in China, Taobao.com, a subsidiary of Alibaba group, reported a 131 percent year-on-year jump in gross transaction volume for last year, reaching the benchmark of RMB 99.96 million (US$14.62 billion)

According to Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the largest consumer to consumer eCommerce platform took up about 1% of China’s total retail trade in 2008. it sales volume also surpass the transaction volume of China’s largest mass retailer.

Taobao registered members: 98 million registered users as of December 31, 2008
Demographic data: 48 percent of which are between the ages of 25 to 32 and 35 percent are between the ages of 16 to 24
Active memebers’ average transaction per year: eight to 10. Users between the ages of 16 to 24 spend less than RMB 1,000 per year, while those the age of 30 spend more than RMB 1,600 and those over age 50 average more than RMB 2,000 per year.

The growth is also attributed to the company’s effort in improving the etrading evironmnet. To tackle the quality issue, it has launched a program, titled “Customer Protection Program“, helping suppliers earn their credibility by paying a desposit to Taobao as guarantee fund.

For more details, you can visit the Yahoo Finance News and Taobao forum.