Internet ventures rake in more business

A few new figures suggest that internet companies in China are in the lift in terms of both getting business and ad money in. China Web2.0 Review signals that e-market leader Taobao has consolidated its leading position in the C2C market with a 72% market share in the first quarter of 2007.
Quoting a report by iResearch:

According to the report, the C2C online shopping market in China has been gaining great momentum over the past six months. The report shows a lot of data to back up their claim. The transaction volume of Taobao for the past six months is RMB 15.7 billion, which has increased by nearly 200% comparing to the same period of 2006. Taobao has 39.9 million registered users by the end of June 2007, increasing over 80% comparing to the same period of last year.

That does not mean Taobao or its parent Alibaba.com is already making money. Who is making money is Baidu, China's largest search engine. CEO Robin Li announced the company had increased in the second quarter total revenue more than 100 percent to US$52.7 compared to the second quarter last year. Profits went up 142.7% to US$18.6 over the same period.