Taobao, an online shopping destination in China, announced it has launched the Taobao App Store.

According to Taobao, the group will invest RMB 10 million (US $1.46 million) to foster independent software developers via the Taobao Open Platform (TOP) fund every year. The Taobao App Store will offer solutions created by independent developers through TOP for Taobao merchants and consumers. The first batch of applications available in the store is the top 30 applications identified through the "Win at Taobao" competition held by TOP.

"With an increasing number of third-party developers registering and the emergence of exceptional software on TOP, the Taobao App Store will serve as an incubator of technology for Taobao users," said Wang Wenbin, vice president of Taobao Open Platform. replica balenciaga handbags "The Taobao App Store is a channel for developers, investors and customers to interact directly and it will ultimately allow the market to evaluate the independent developers' creations."

Established in October 2009, the TOP fund will make an annual investment of RMB 10 million to foster and encourage development in online application development among independent developers. The TOP fund is jointly financed by Taobao, Alibaba Group and outside investors. Several external parties including government entities in China and around the world, funds and investment companies have expressed interest in becoming potential investors.

The top three winners of the "Win at Taobao" competition, launched in September 2009, will receive investments from the TOP fund totaling RMB 5 million (US $732,000). Another RMB5 million of investments will be shared among the rest of the top 30 contestants. As of December 31, more than 25,000 independent software developers have registered on TOP and more than 4,000 applications have been created using the application programming interface (API) provided on TOP.

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