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Taobao.com Expected to Report CNY5bn Revnue for 2010HANGZHOU, Jan 17, 2011 (SinoCast Daily Business Beat via COMTEX) -- Taobao.com, the online shopping platform under the aegis of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, is likely to report CNY 5 billion in total revenue for 2010, predicted analysts in China yesterday. Of all the revenue, 80% or CNY 4 billion will come from the advertising operation, a robust growth from CNY 1.5 billion in 2009, according to one of the analysts. Such an estimated speedy growth is confirmed by Lu Peng (transliterated), vice president for Taobao.com, who said that Taobao.com is possibly to see its transaction value top the CNY 400 billion mark in 2010, driving up operating revenue substantially. The Taobao.com advertising revenue grows much faster than its transaction value at the moment, pointed out an analyst, noting that the brisk growth in revenue is boosted by an insufficient supply of Taobao.com advertising resources and an adjustment in the Taobao.com search rules. The company will probably maintain a fast expansion in revenue this year, according to the analyst. Taobao.com speeded up its business expansion after business-to-consumer (B2C) platforms began to win favor of investors last year, rolling out a series of online supermarkets such as shopping mall, digital product mall, footwear mall, and beauty saloon for a further commercialization. The Hangzhou-based company came just after Baidu, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIDU), Google, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), and SINA Corporation (NASDAQ: SINA) in China in 2009 by advertising revenue. The cooperation between venture capital (VC) firms and B2C sites as well as the rush of traditional retailers into e-commerce market has made Taobao.com more an online media platform, pointed out another analyst, noting that more than USD 1 billion have flown into the B2C market in the past year. Taobao.com raked in advertising revenue of CNY 590 million in the first quarter of 2010, ranking second among all the Internet firms in the country after Baidu. Baidu, based in Beijing, is expected to score revenue of CNY 8 billion in 2010. Obviously, Taobao.com is poised to be the Amazon.com in China, a target that most of the integrated B2C platforms in the country are striving for. 360buy.com, for instance, has launched a beta version of open platform nicknamed as an Amazon platform clone. The Beijing-based company has won USD 150 million in venture capital in its latest round of fundraising. "More than 80% of the online shoppers in mainland China are made by Taobao.com and the company has done much to cultivate the online consumer culture in the mainland," said Lv Bowang, president and chief analyst for China IntelliConsulting Corporation. Source: www.qq.com (January 17, 2011) |