Alibaba Group's Taobao launches fund for developers
Days after Alibaba Group Holdings came under fire for uncovering fraudulent vendors on its B2B domain Alibaba.com, the holding company announced that its popular e-auction site, Taobao.com, would launch an RMB300 million ($45.6 million) fund to foster external digital application developers.
According to reports citing an announcement Taobao Vice President Wang Wenbin, the fund looks to promote third-party developers in hopes of adopting new technology into its main operations. Taobao differs from Alibaba.com as it operates as an auction platform, much like eBay, while Alibaba.com targets business users and traders. The news comes the same day that another Chinese internet giant, Tencent, announced its own fund.
Earlier this week, Alibaba.com's CEO David Wei and COO Elvis Lee announced their exit after an internal investigation into Alibaba.com revealed that more than 2,300 vendors had set up fraudulent storefronts, passing knock-off products for the real goods, sometimes assisted by Alibaba's staff. Last month, reports surfaced that Alibaba Group sought to invest $4.5 billion to form a network of warehouses across China, possibly through a joint fund set up with a private equity firm.
The Group's Founder, Chairman and CEO Jack Ma has also aired his plans to form a $200 million VC fund for investing in Chinese companies.
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