18 Jan 2011 09:13

NetEase taps into thriving luxury goods sector with new online mall

Shanghai. January 18. INTERFAX-CHINA - NetEase.com Inc., a leading Chinese Web portal operator, announced Jan. 17 that it has launched an online shopping mall for luxury goods, L.163.com.

According to the Web site, the mall provides heavily-discounted clothes, jewelry and accessories from 36 designer brands including Gucci, Chanel and Cartier. A further eight brands are expected to begin selling products through the platform soon.

Customers can pay for orders using online banking services, NetEase's homegrown online payment platform epay, and Alibaba Group's Alipay.

China is projected to eclipse Japan as the world's biggest luxury goods market by 2015 with annual sales of $14.6 billion, up from $9.4 billion in 2009, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in May 2010.

NetEase launched a business-to-consumer (B2C) online shopping mall named shop.163.com in December last year, Interfax previously reported. It provides top-up cards for prepaid mobile phones and online games accounts, as well as lottery tickets and a photo print service.

NetEase's revenue for the third quarter of 2010 rose 66.9 percent year-on-year to $215.05 million, according to its latest unaudited financial results.

-LX