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Taobao's popularity in the Taiwan region
淘宝在台湾地区大受欢迎
Since 2006, when Chinese mainland's Taobao first entered the Taiwan market, it has not only already become one of the most popular online shopping websites in Taiwan, but has also brought the two sides closer.
Everyday there are about 10,000 packages coming from Chinese mainland's Taobao to Taiwan with hundreds of thousands of online shoppers excited about their bargains and their latest shopping experience.
Callie Nien, a Taobao shopper, says, "I was stunned. Things were 3 to 7 US dollars on Taobao, but in Taiwan it would be 15 to 20 dollars. Taobao was like heaven!"
In particular, Taobao is attracting younger shoppers that may have previously chosen to shop in the smaller stores, now choosing to skip the middle men and go straight to Taobao.
Irene Shin, another fan of Taobao, says, "I buy often. I buy about 3-4 times a month and help my classmates to buy in bulk."
Since the people of Taiwan started shopping on Taobao in 2006, the revenues have increased rapidly. In 2013 Taobao sales in Taiwan were about 170 million US dollars, an increase of over 25 percent from the previous year.
Winni Liu, who works at E. Sun Bank, comments, "In the past, Taiwan people always had to pay people they knew on the Chinese mainland to buy for them and ship to them, or if they paid 3rd parties in China mainland, sometimes packages didn't arrive and Taobao really wanted to solve such problems."
Now that the problem of 3rd parties is solved, business is looking to get even better and that it actually might bring the two sides closer.
Liu also says, "More business interactions brings better understanding of the two sides. For example, Chinese mainlanders can try Taiwanese food by buying the food online and Taiwanese can buy more inexpensive products from the Chinese mainland and thereby bringing the two sides closer."
Another way some are saying that Taobao is bringing the two sides closer is in terms of the political ideology of unification is that shoppers have to click that Taiwan is a province of China on their shipping address as they check out.
Whether or not Taobao is bringing both sides closer, one thing is sure. It is an example of Taiwan being more open to Chinese mainland businesses and one that Taiwan shoppers are benefitting from.
