Taobao (Chinese: 淘寶) is a Chinese online shopping platform. It is headquartered in Hangzhou and is owned by Alibaba. According to Alexa rank, it is the eighth most-visited website globally in 2021. Taobao.com was registered on April 21, 2003 by Alibaba Cloud Computing (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
Taobao Marketplace facilitates consumer-to-consumer (C2C) retail by providing a platform for small businesses and individual entrepreneurs to open online stores that mainly cater to consumers in Chinese-speaking regions (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) and abroad,] which is made payable by online accounts. Its stores usually offer an express delivery service.
Sellers are able to post goods for sale either through a fixed price or an auction. Auctions make up a small percentage of transactions, whereas the majority of the products are new merchandise sold at fixed prices. Buyers can assess seller backgrounds on the site, using ratings, comments, and complaints. Taobao’s popular payment platform is Alibaba’s Alipay.
History
Taobao Marketplace (formerly “Taobao”) was launched in May 2003 by Alibaba after eBay acquired Eachnet, China’s online auction leader at the time, for US$180 million. It became a major contender in the Chinese consumer e-commerce market. To counter eBay’s expansion, Taobao offered free listings to sellers. It introduced instant messaging for facilitating buyer-seller communication and an escrow-based payment tool: Alipay. Taobao became mainland China’s market leader within two years. Its market share grew from 8% to 59% between 2003 and 2005, while eBay China dropped from 79% to 36%. eBay shut down its Chinese site in 2006.
In April 2008, Taobao introduced a newly dedicated B2C platform called Taobao Mall to complement its C2C marketplace. Taobao Mall established itself as the destination for quality brand-name goods for Chinese consumers. Taobao Mall launched an independent web domain, Tmall.com, and enhanced its focus on product verticals and improvements in the shopping experience in November 2010. It became an independent business in June 2011 and changed its Chinese name to Tian Mao (Tmall) in January 2012.
In 2008, Taobao fueled the overall growth of the Chinese online shopping industry through the execution of its “Big Taobao” strategy with the aim of becoming a provider of e-commerce infrastructure services for all e-commerce market participants.
In October 2010, Taobao beta-launched eTao as an independent search engine for online shopping to provide and merchant information from a number of major consumer e-commerce websites in China. Online shoppers would be able to use the site to compare prices across sellers. According to the Alibaba Group web site, eTao offers products from Amazon China, Dangdang, Gome, Yihaodian, Nike China and Vancl, as well as Taobao and Tmall.
In May 2011, Alibaba Group opened a retail store in Beijing under the Taobao Mall brand. The five-story 25,000sqm Taobao Mall iFengChao Furniture Showroom served as a complement to their online stores.
In June 2011, Alibaba Group Executive Chairman and former CEO Jack Ma announced that Taobao would split into three different companies: Taobao Marketplace (a C2C platform), Tmall.com (a B2C platform; then called Taobao Mall), and eTao (a search engine for online shopping). The move was said to be necessary for Taobao to “meet competitive threats that emerged in the past two years during which the Internet and e-commerce landscape has changed dramatically.”
In 2012 Taobao began to accept international Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards.
On 29 April 2013, Alibaba announced an investment of US$586 million in Sina Weibo. According to Reuters, the deal “should drive more web traffic to Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace”. On August 1, 2013, Alibaba launched Weibo for Taobao, which allows users to link Sina Weibo accounts with Taobao accounts.
Technology
Adaptive Agent
Taobao applies a search tool named ‘adaptive agents’. An adaptive agent picks up signals from consumers’ purchase records, including categories, brands, functions and colors etc.; The search engine involves the scanning of a particular bar code. Taobao tracks customers’ purchasing history and reorganizes it into selections that the buyer is likely to be attracted to.
An adaptive agent works by updating prior models using new data via Bayes’ theorem (Laplace’s method). The possibility of the occurrence of a certain event can be estimated through the frequency of its occurrence in the past. The ranking of a product or a page can be determined by the combination of its prior information plus its posterior data of click transaction.
The popularity of Taobao’s searching model is based on the calculation of correlation rate and quality scores:
- Static score of a product’s title (correlation rate).
- Matching score of the title and query of a product (correlation rate).
- Category model of a product (correlation rate).
- Transaction model of the commodity (quality score).
- Sellers model (quality score).
- Feedback (quality score).
Semantic Search
Taobao automatically classifies product text and images and uses tags to match. Semantic search solves the correlation problem that keyword texts cannot solve, such as images, complex texts, and ambiguous texts. Semantic search is a recommendation system that presents customers with similar items that consumers might not find when searching one keyword. Entity tagging and other classifications are used.
More about Taobao:
Everything under one roof
Are you tired of visiting countless numbers of stores when you need to do some shopping? You’re forced to buy fashion in one place and toys for your kids at another, while your new kitchen utensils are available in yet another store. Wouldn’t it be better to find everything under one roof, pay only once for the delivery and not worry about anything? Yes, it would and it is possible with Taobao, Asia’s most popular online store.
This is all about convenience so instead of looking for deals elsewhere, just come and grab what’s yours. Subscribe to be sure you get everything you need, from free delivery to massive discount vouchers. All you need is your email address and a minute to subscribe!
About
Taobao offers you a wealth of products from many categories. You can furnish your house and fill your wardrobe with incredibly low priced items that are of fantastic quality. What’s more? It’s incredibly easy because the categories at the store are intuitive and easy to navigate. Need some clothing? No problem – there’s popular women’s clothes and fashion men’s clothes. When you scroll on one of those you will see more sub-categories to choose from which makes the whole process much easier and faster.
Women who are expecting or have small children can go for maternal and child supplies, including clothing, toys and some baby essentials. You will not have to spend a fortune on things that normally cost a lot of money, which is a great start in your baby’s life.
Home life will be a much more pleasant one with furnishings and appliances available at Taobao. What exactly is available there? Tableware/kitchenware will make dinners and all the other meals much more pleasant. Bedding will help you get more rest when you sleep. And if you’re in need of some other decorations for your home, you can check wall stickers, towel sets and photo frames.
But that’s not all. Prices at Taobao are already affordable but more can be achieved with amazing sales available on the website. You will find them easily by clicking on a cost-effective tab on the top of the page. The products listed on this web page are just as good in quality, but they are discounted due to the introduction of newer models or warehouse restocking. This is your best opportunity to save even more.
If you completely lack the ideas on what to buy, simply scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see inspirations regarding each category. Perhaps you will get some ideas on how to mix and match certain products or you will find a true gem of a bargain. For example, there is always good time to start practicing outdoor sport. If you don’t have any proper clothing and you want to be active, Taobao has got you covered with its large catalog of garments, accessories, small exercise objects and accessories. So easy and fun!
People, who run their own businesses, know well that every cent counts in a company. For this reason, you should strive to always find the best opportunities to save money. Office supplies and appliances can get very costly if you’re not responsible with your spending. To avoid this, you should check the range carried by the online store.
Taobao discount codes
Saving online is not a difficult thing but it requires a bit time to learn the skill. it’s easier than ever and you will always find the best possible deals for yourself, your family members and friends. Just:
- Check which promotions are available on the website. There are different kinds: free delivery, codes, vouchers, Black Friday promos, Cyber Monday offers, and newsletter deals. Pick whichever you like the most and click on it. If there is a discount code, it will need to be copied but if there isn’t, you will be transferred to the store’s own website.
- Start shopping by first browsing around the site. Use the categories and sub-categories to help you find the right product. If you have found it, click on it to learn more.
- Choose its size, color and properties as appropriate. When you have done it, add it to your basket. Continue shopping if you want.
- When you’re finished with shopping on the site, go to your basket and review your order. Add any discount code you may have. Confirm with your payment by leaving your card details, name and delivery address.
