Alipay.com Launches Trading Platform For Used Goods In China

Alipay.com, the third-party Internet payment subsidiary of the Chinese B2B e-commerce group Alibaba, has launched a new Internet trading platform for second-hand products.

Via this new platform, users can sell their used goods, and the published trading information will be syndicated to Sina’s microblog, Taobao.com, Ganji.com, and Baixing.com synchronously. Alipay.com will provide Internet payment services to this new C2C platform. It is said that each user can enjoy the monthly trading volume of CNY10,000 or 20 transactions for free; while those exceeding the limit will be charged with a 1% service fee.

A representative from the user business department of Alipay.com said that Alipay.com will act as a warrantor during the transaction and provides a guaranteed escrow account to the two parties during the transaction. After transferring the payments into the account, buyers have up to 30 days to check if the goods they received have any problem, and then decide if they want to complete the transaction by confirming the payments. After the confirmation, the payments will be transferred to the sellers.

At present, Chinese classified information websites such as 58.com, Ganji.com and Baixing.com are the major trading platforms for used goods; however, these websites cannot provide full online payment services. The launch of this new platform of Alipay.com is expected to solve the problem and cut into the revenues of other sites.

According to Alipay.com, the new platform is currently looking for more partners and the trading information published by its users will soon be synchronized on more websites.