Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group opened the sales of funds on its popular online shopping platform Taobao on November 1 after receiving a no-action letter from the China Securities Regulatory Commission on October 31 for its funds business.

This makes it China's first Internet company to provide services for funds sales institutions. Alipay, also run by Alibaba, will provide third-party payment services for online funds sales.

On November 1, the first batch of 17 funds institutions, including Guotai AMC, E Fund and Aegon-Industrial Fund, opened their online funds shops on Taobao.

Persons aged 18 or above can buy funds after passing real-name authentication through the Alipay online payment service.

The retailers will provide a one-stop service for buyers to open accounts, place and pay for orders, as well as manage their fund accounts, "similar to online clothes shopping," said the Alibaba Group.

Online funds sales is the second major step for Alibaba after establishing a new business offering its customers higher investment yields than interest from banks. In mid-June, Alipay began to offer users the option to directly invest with the private Tianhong Fund. To date, the fund has accumulated an asset size of 55.6 billion yuan ($9.12 billion), the largest single fund in China.