Jan. 24, 2008 (China Knowledge) - The users at Taobao.com, a unit of Alibaba.com Corp.<1688>, surged 76.7% in the year of 2007 at 53 million. The rising visit volume boosted the trading volume of the online auction site by 156% and doubled the site's transaction volume to RMB 43.3 billion, source reported.

Meanwhile, Taobao.com, which takes up more than 70% market sale in online shopping with major business in consumer to consumer (C2C) deals, went red for profit in 2007 mainly because no fee on individual sellers and buyers is charged. The site unveiled its plan earlier this month that it will launch a business to consumer (B2C) platform to create an online Taobao Shopping Mall eligible only to major domestic and overseas consumer product makers and retailers for direct sales to Chinese buyers.

The Hangzhou-based online auction site is well-known for its free service and has beat eBay Inc in China for this reason. The turnover for its C2C business soars rapidly, reaching RMB 15.7 billion in the first half of 2007, three times as much as that of the same period in 2006.