Taobao 's gross turnover in 2009 is expected to exceed 200 billion yuan (US$29.3 billion), and an executive committee is to be established to push for the success of the 'Big Taobao' strategy, according to a spokesperson for Alibaba Group on January 25.

The parent company also expects Taobao to double its turnover in 2010 to 400 billion yuan (US$58.6 billion), surpassing that of eBay Inc., said John Spelich, Alibaba 's vice president of international corporate affairs.

Alibaba Group is also strengthening the leadership of Life.alipay, which will coordinate with the 'Big Taobao' strategy to improve China's online trusted secure sytem for ecommerce payment.

After its large-scale restructuring, Alibaba Group is making 2010 the first year of its cooperative development. Based on its 'Big Taobao' strategy, the newly integrated Taobao will be committed to offering a set of solutions to online retail shops and vendors and forming a system and method of doing business online that can best be described as an "electronic business ecology".

Starting back in 2008, the 'Big Taobao' strategy aggregated Taobao, Life.alipay, Alibabalabs, Yahoo.cn together with several other subsidiaries and departments under its umbrella. Its first step was to form a B2B2C commercial chain by integrating Taobao and Alibaba, followed by a plan of partnership with Taobao that aims at attracting e-commere outsourcing providers to offfer individual products and services to customers and small- and medium-sized enterprises.

(Global Times January 27, 2010)