Alibaba Group has taken steps to separate its Taobao Mall business-to-consumer (B2C) portal from the established Taobao auction site, the Wall Street Journal reported. Taobao Mall is now available through its own Tmall.com address. Previously it was accessed through Taobao.com, the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) auction site. Taobao.com CFO Daniel Zhang said the move is intended to differentiate the Taobao Mall brand and “give people a very clear idea that this is the first choice to find high-quality products.” This will be supported by a US$30 million three-month marketing campaign, including advertisements on CCTV and billboards in major Chinese cities. The strategic decision comes after Ye Peng, formerly COO of Baidu (BIDU.NASDAQ), joined Alibaba as vice president overseeing Taobao Mall. Zhang said he expects the value of transactions on Taobao Mall to quadruple this year, outstripping the growth of the C2C business. Alibaba Group also owns business-to-business website Alibaba.com (1688.HK).
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