Taobao, Asia's largest online trading platform, has launched a year-end sales promotion with the largest discounts of the year, hexun.com reports.
The promotional campaign, held on the website qiang.taobao.com from midnight on December 21 to December 24, covers a wide range of commodities with an average discount of 50 percent plus free delivery.
Other online trading websites in the country also expressed strong interests in the year-end market. Tianya.cn, for instance, launched similar sales activities with half-price discounts before the coming Christmas and New Year festival.
The huge discounts have attracted hordes of customers, and kicked off this year's biggest online shopping festival, the report said.
Taobao's business volume for female apparel amounted to 10 million yuan (1.5 million U.S. dollars) in the first 24 minutes of the campaign, and the sales of three online stores dealing with the category reached 1 million yuan in the first half an hour.
Chocolates, roses, and candies, as well as jewelry are among the best-selling products, said Taobao.
According to the Ministry of Commerce, the e-commerce transaction volume of Mainland China reached 258 billion yuan (38.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2009 with 105.8 percent year-on-year growth. The country had 108 million internet users involved in online shopping by the end of 2009.
