Alibaba Group will soon launch e-reading software for the Apple (AAPL.NASDAQ) iPhone, part of the e-commerce company’s expansion into the e-reading market, state media reported, quoting Tao Ran, senior director of public relations at Alibaba Group. The client allows mobile users to browse the “Taobao Bookstore,” which offers 50,000 online literary works and 10,000 other publications, using their Taobao accounts. Content will come from the Taohua.com site, a joint venture launched by Taobao and Wasu Media Internet last year that offers digital content including e-books, movies and music. An expansion into e-reading would bring Alibaba into competition with better-established providers like Shanda Interactive Entertainment (SNDA.NASDAQ), which said it had roughly 2.5 million books in its online bookstore at the end of last month.