Tsuen Wan International: China’s largest search engine Baidu to shut its online e-commerce store.

April 1, 2011 - PRLog -- China’s biggest search engine Baidu Inc. is to shut down the e-commerce store in early May and Youa’s existing vendors will be migrated to Rakuten China and Yaodian 100, Tsuen Wan International has learned from a statement recently released by Baidu.

"This should not be seen as Baidu withdrawing from the e-commerce scene. In fact, we are in research and development on a new e-commerce platform product which will suit users better," a spokeswoman for Baidu told Tsuen Wan International sources.

The shutdown of Youa, which Baidu initially established to rival Alibaba’s popular online shopping site, Taobao, seals Taobao’s position as the leader in e-commerce in China.

Youa failed to gain popularity with the majority of online users who rather opted to utilise Taobao’s platform to trade goods online. Tsuen Wan International research shows that Taobao currently holds over 70% of China’s e-commerce market based on gross merchandise value.

China is the globe’s biggest internet market with over 450 million users. Web commerce in the country has rocketed in recent years as buyers in the world’s second-largest economy change to the internet for better deals from more reliable suppliers and better prices.


Rakuten China is a joint venture between Baidu and Japan's largest online retailer, Rakuten Inc.

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