Paul Woodward

China's E-Commerce Takes Off

It really isn't correct to suggest that Taoboa has revenues larger than Hualian. They may indeed process transactions which are larger than Hualian's revenues but Taobao's services remain almost completely free and the company generates basically no direct revenues from all this activity. Its users have strongly resisted efforts to introduce fees and the Alibaba management has to continue to try other angles to monetize at least some of this activity.