Taobao is the Chinese equivalent of Amazon or eBay, with a couple hundred million users all selling each other random knick-knacks and bootleg electronics. Thanks to its massive potential customer base, Taobao is huge: CrunchBase claims that the site controls over 65 percent of the online auction market, and the Journal wrote that the site is shooting for more than $167 billion in sales this year.So, yeah, Taobao is massive, and business is doing well. But the online shopping realm is hyper-competitive, which means Taobao can’t afford to rest on its laurels. That’s why, in a stroke of weird, creepy genius, Taobao is now offering a new shipping service. For 10 yuan (about $1.59) extra, customers can now have ‘Tao Girls’ hand deliver their packages.Read the rest over at Motherboard.
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