Taobao: “Weitao” Plans to Become a Mobile Shopping Mall

Last month, Chinese ebay equivalent Taobao announced a beta mobile app “Weitao”. It is due to be launched in the late May together with the new version of official Taobao app. Users can experience it on the html5 mobile phone. Some stores on Taobao have already tried out this public account platform.

According to “Weitao” beta report, Taobao will set up a wireless public account platform through “Weitao”. It can receive the flow of information provided by different account; the account operator of the flow of information will be coming from Taobao stores, media institutions, or one of the leaders in any consumption area. As soon as the app goes live, it will soon become the sub-channel of the official Taobao app.

In the early of 2011, Alibaba CEO Jack Ma had announced on the Taobao annual meeting that “We will SNS Taobao”. So this try will prove to be Taobao’s new attempt on SNS area.

As per Ali’s magazine executive editor Xu Wei, “Weitao” is not a separate app, but a channel in the new mobile Taobao app. If the official Taobao app is just a store, then with “Weitao”, this app will become a shopping mall, where consumers can not only shop, chat but also play or entertain as well.