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Taobao on Xmas Transactions, Airline Bookings and Employment Stats
Alibaba Group's consumer-focused e-commerce site Taobao.com saw transaction volume rise 100% year-on-year during the week of Christmas, while the site's daily transaction volume averaged RMB 430 million, reports Nanfang Daily. Daily transaction volume peaked at RMB 500 million on December 22, compared with peak volume of less than RMB 250 million one year ago.
Taobao.com recorded more than 50,000 air ticket bookings in the past week, including more than 9,000 tickets on December 25, making the site second only to online travel services provider Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (Nasdaq:CTRP), which sells 45,000 tickets daily, 10,000 of them online, reports xkb.com.cn. Hainan Airlines (900945.SH) opened the airline industry's first flagship store on Taobao.com on December 15, and unnamed sources said another seven to eight airlines are preparing to open Taobao stores in 2009. More than 100 air ticket agencies in over 55 cities have opened online stores on Taobao.com, said the report.
Zhejiang Provincial Administration for Industry & Commerce released a regulation on December 29 to encourage individuals, including new graduates and the unemployed, to take up consumer-to-consumer trading on large e-commerce platforms including Taobao.com, reports chinanews.com.cn. Zhejiang province's total online transaction volume is expected to reach RMB 200 billion in 2008, up from RMB 16.7 billion in 2004, said the report. Online retail accounts for only 1% of China's total retail volume, compared to 5% and 8% in the U.S. and Korea, respectively, said Taobao.com president Jonathan Lu. Taobao provides employment for 400,000 online traders, who in turn create nearly 1 million job opportunities in fields like logistics, said Lu.
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