Taobao

Taobao (淘宝), which has a direct translation in Chinese meaning “seeking treasure”, is a Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce marketplace started in 2003 by the Alibaba Group which offers a platform for individuals and small business owners to sell their products online through their own “stores”. There is Taobao Marketplace for individual and small and medium businesses and Tmall (also Tmall Global) for medium to large businesses.

Sometimes, and mostly outside China, Taobao is referred to as the China Amazon or eBay, but in reality it far surpasses them. It is the world's largest e-commerce website and one of the top 10 most visited websites in the world (according to Alexa). It is China’s biggest e-commerce site by far with over 600 million monthly active users and nearly 60% of e-commerce sales. It is used by most Chinese and a growing number of Asian and global, users.

With over 1 billion product listings Taobao is China’s largest online marketplace selling anything from cosmetics to dead mosquito bodies.