E-commerce is growing fast in China and people increasingly turn to Taobao, by far the leader in its market, for everything from clothes and make-up to mobile phones and household products. Taobao is also expanding beyond product sale hosting with new services such as online booking for plane tickets.

Taobao, which charges no transaction or item posting fees, expects to break even this year, a spokeswoman said. The company reported a ballooning transaction volume of 80.9 billion yuan (US$11.8 billion) in the first half of the year but draws most of its revenue from advertising.