Over 60% of mobile Taobao app users are under 30, according to research by Alibaba, Taobao’s parent. Taobao is a marketplace analogous to sites like eBay or Amazon, and research shows that the app is equally popular across genders in China.
Alibaba also reports that in April 2016 Taobao users launched the app over seven times per day. On average, they also looked at nearly 19 items.
More broadly, users have begun to frequent the app more often. In 2014 only 33% of monthly users visited Taobao daily; Alibaba projects that figure to be over 45% in 2016.
Sources outside Alibaba corroborate Taobao’s dominance of the market in China, along with Tmall, another Amazon-like venue for commerce in China. But what Kapronasia and Disruption House found in their March 2016 report reveals that the two platforms are popular with younger buyers especially for cross-border purchasing.
While Amazon is available in China, millennial digital buyers often opt for Taobao or Tmall. About 20% of those who made cross-border digital purchases said they used Amazon, which is a significant figure, though it doesn’t approach the nearly 60% who used Alibaba’s app and site services.
So while Amazon is certainly not an unknown quantity in China, digital buyers and internet users-especially those who are younger-prefer the Alibaba outlets when it comes to making online purchases.
