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Taobao offers fee plan

By Nicholas Ning (Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2007-03-28 13:55

Taobao.com, an e-commerce Website that beat eBay Inc in China with free service, will offer a paid program next month as it gradually shifts away from its no-fee model.

The new service, which affords more space and instant messaging tools, targets professional store operators on Taobao's brand and shopping mall channel, one of the five major trading zones on the Website, theZhejiangProvince-based company said yesterday.

Store owners can choose from packages that cost up to 1,800 yuan (US$231) a quarter in return for as many as 80 "showcase windows" and five Aliwangwang accounts, an instant messaging tool Taobao uses for bargaining.

In addition, applicants also have to pay 200 yuan for a domain name and a 199 yuan application fee, apart from a deposit of at least 3,000 yuan, which will be used by Taobao to compensate buyers in case of shoddy goods or other disputes.

Taobao spokesman Lu Weixing said the "value-added service" is available to store owners "on a voluntary basis."

"We are just offering them an option, and it's up them to pay or continue to use the previous free service, which is still there," said Lu.

Individual traders on Taobao won't be affected by the new option.

There are more than 1,000 stores on Taobao's mall channel, and around 200 have already signed up for the extra service, Lu said.

Taobao, a unit of China's largest e-commerce firm, Alibaba.com Corp, has more than 30 million registered users. Set up in 2003, its free services competed successfully against rival eBay Inc's China unit, eBay Eachnet, which lost market share to Taobao and eventually handed ceded control to a local partner in December.