Taobao ,as the biggest Ecommerce Platform in China, is trying to stimulate young generation's creative power in smart stuff. From July22-24th, Taobao has taken its online marketplace to an offline fair in Shanghai as parent company Alibaba Group looks to spotlight the young entrepreneurs doing business on China’s largest e-commerce site.
 
The fair, called the Taobao Maker Festival, brought together 72 of these up-and-coming merchants, who sell everything from bamboo bicycles to foldable guitars to 3D-printed jewelry. Alibaba is putting particular focus on China’s younger generation, the company said, because it is the most active group on Taobao.
 

“Millennials are the driving force behind Taobao Marketplace, with 70 percent of buyers in their 20s and 30s,” Alibaba Chief Marketing Officer Chris Tung said in a statement. These twenty- and thirtysomethings “make a strong contribution to the platform’s active ecosystem,” he said.

Bamboo Bicycles Beijing uses Taobao to build its brand and target its most likely customers: China’s young generation.

Taobao Maker Festival

Bamboo Bicycles Beijing uses Taobao to build its brand and target its most likely customers: China’s young generation.

That ecosystem includes not just e-commerce but also digital media such as news and live streaming, online communities of like-minded shoppers and services such as travel booking and food delivery. And the majority of this activity is playing out on mobile devices. Mobile Taobao, launched in 2009, currently has 369 million monthly active users and they spend more than 20 minutes a day using the app.

 




Foldable Guitars

Some of those buyers are becoming sellers as well, leveraging Taobao to launch their businesses, according to Alibaba. In the process they too are helping to shift the site’s reputation as a consumer-to-consumer sales channel to a lifestyle destination for one of China’s most important demographics.
 
“Mobile Taobao has evolved into an interactive lifestyle platform driven by a vibrant young consumer population who seek to do much more than just shop,” Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said in the statement. “It is a destination for innovators, entrepreneurs and creatives to showcase and experiment amongst a community of 423 million Chinese consumers on our China retail marketplaces that come to Mobile Taobao to explore, discover and be entertained.”

VR Roller Coaster 

The makers aren’t the only draw for attendees, however. Alibaba is also using the event to highlight its push into virtual reality. Attendees will be able to test a beta version of the company’s Buy+ online shopping experience, which allows consumers to shop in a 360-degree virtual store. U.S.-based mixed reality company Magic Leap, which Alibaba invested in earlier this year, is also in Shanghai to give a keynote presentation in the afternoon.
 
“As users continue to engage with the platform in more meaningful ways, we are fostering next-generation consumption features such as virtual reality to transcend the overall user experience,” CMO Tung said.