With some researchers (most recentlyCredit Suisse's China analysts) predicting Chinese e-commerce revenues will grow 100% a year to 2015 it's not surprising that international brands are scrambling to understand and tap the dynamics of the country's web portals. Top of the local business-to-consumer pile Taobao has evolved from an eBay knock off to a massively popular resource for wholesalers and B2C operators.Some 450 million Chinese use B2C portals, but Taobao, a subsidiary of Alibaba, has sidelined competition such as Japan's Rakuten, which has a China-based joint venture with Baidu, China's leading search engine. Taobao has a 70% share of China's B2C market according to research house Analysys International, a Beijing-based research agency.
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