BEIJING, Feb 11 (Reuters) - China's top online auction firm Taobao said its transaction volume surged to 99.96 billion yuan ($14.6 billion) in 2008, up 131 percent from the year before, helped by higher Internet usage in the country.
Taobao, also known as China's eBay (EBAY.O), has 98 million registered users, about half of which are aged between 25 and 32, the company said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Apparel and mobile phones are the two most popular items sold on its website, with 15.99 billion yuan and 10.84 billion yuan worth of trade each, Taobao said.
"Taobao's strong growth in 2008 was driven by...the strong growth of Internet usage in China, the increasing penetration of domestic e-commerce and the investments made by Taobao..." Jonathan Lu, Taobao's president, said in the statement.
Executives have said Taobao broke even for the first time in last August and could turn a profit this year -- six years after it was founded in 2003.
The parent company of Taobao, Alibaba Group, which also controls Alibaba.com Inc (1688.HK), announced in October last year it would invest 5 billion yuan ($733 million) in Taobao over five years to build its business.
China said in January the number of Internet users jumped nearly 42 percent to 298 million by the end of 2008 from the previous year.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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