lekutian

Japan's top eCommerce site Rakuten and Chinese search engine Baidu have opened an online shopping mall. 

The B2B2C (business to business to consumer) platform, named Lekutian, was previously open to vendors for registration. Now, there are currently more than 2,000 registered sellers.

The objective of the site is to become China's top eCommerce platform. Alibaba's marketplace Taobao currently holds 75% of all online transactions operated in China in Q2, according to Beijing-based consulting firm Analysys International.

Products sold on the platform mostly come from Chinese and foreign SMEs. Lekutian will help businesses to market their products. 

Rakuten's CEO expects that revenue generated by Lekutian will overtake Rakuten's revenue in Japan. Latest June, Rakuten bought French eCommerce site Priceminister.com for about 200 million euros.

Lekutian must benefit of Priceminister's experience in eCommerce, notably with tools to monitor vendors and detect counterfeit goods.