Employment

The low-cost pattern of opening online shops has been deemed an important provider of job opportunities in China. In June 2009, the municipal government of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, offered 3 million yuan ($439,239) for a competition of opening online shops by university graduates, with the hope of assisting more young people in creating their own businesses.

The China Online Shopping Research Report for the First Half of 2009 indicated that in 2008, taobao.com created 570,000 jobs while the number of indirect job opportunities surpassed 1 million. The indirect opportunities were in such related industries as logistics, finance and marketing.

Statistics show that among the 570,000 shop operators at taobao.com, more than half are between 23 and 32 years old, providing insight into the trend that university graduates create their own businesses by opening online shops.

Gu Shengzu, economist and member of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), suggested at the NPC session earlier this year that taobao.com and other platforms of creating businesses with low costs but high efficiency must call the attention of the government, as they may provide a new means of employment in China.

An online shop operator at taobao.com named Earring said that China has the largest population of netizens in the world and that many business opportunities exist via the Internet. With the continued development of Internet technologies, there will be more online transaction possibilities, which will provide a major employment platform.

According to Earring, online shopping can drive up development of a series of related industries such as logistics and increase job opportunities in these employment sectors. He hopes that the government can reduce the costs of online transactions, such as cutting or exempting taxes and fees, in order to promote the development of the online shopping market.

Chronology

In 1999, 8848.com, China's first business-to-consumer shopping website, opened. In the same year, eachnet.com, the country's first consumer-to-consumer shopping website, also began operating. Just one week after eachnet.com launched its service, 5,000 netizens opened their shops on the website.

In 2001, affected by the Internet bubble burst, the online shopping market remained in the doldrums. 8848.com was unable to survive until the year's end.

In May 2003, taobao.com was launched. Within 20 days of opening, it welcomed the 10,000th registered user. Between 2003 and 2005, taobao.com explored a unique operating pattern of consumer to consumer, developing its instant communication tool and creating a safe and reliable third-party payment tool, AliPay. The payment tool promoted the standard operation of China's online shopping market.In 2006, the frequent acquisitions and mergers of online shopping businesses boosted China's online shopping market. Leading shopping websites such as taobao.com, eachnet.com and joyo.com soon emerged.

Since 2008 when the financial crisis engulfed the world, the sales volume of Chinese online retail industry represented by taobao.com has continued to double in growth.