Taobao
Type of site | Consumer-to-consumer and E-commerce |
|---|---|
| Available in | Chinese |
| Owner | Alibaba Group |
| Created by | Camera |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Launched | May 2003 |
| Current status | Active |
| Written in | PHP |
| Taobao | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"Taobao" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 淘宝 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 淘寶 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | search for treasure | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Taobao is a Chinese online shopping platform. It is headquartered in Hangzhou and is owned by Alibaba. According to Alexa rank, it was the eighth most-visited website globally in 2021. Taobao.com was registered on April 21, 2003 by Alibaba Cloud Computing (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
Taobao Marketplace facilitates consumer-to-consumer retail by providing a platform for small businesses and individual entrepreneurs to open online stores that mainly cater to consumers in Chinese-speaking regions (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) and abroad, which is made payable by online accounts. Its stores usually offer an express delivery service.
Sellers are able to post goods for sale either through a fixed price or an auction. Auctions make up a small percentage of transactions, whereas the majority of the products are new merchandise sold at fixed prices. Taobao users usually read feedback and compare items from multiple shops. Taobao's popular payment platform is Alibaba's Alipay
As of at least 2024, it is the world's most popular shopping hub as measured by gross merchandise value.