Alibaba.com has announced that its Taobao.com Chinese-language auction site will remain free for buyers and sellers until at least October 2008.
Taobao.com has also called on rival eBay (EBAY) to join Taobao in making its Chinese services free for Chinese users. eBay runs a Chinese auction service called eBay Eachnet.
Alibaba says it will also invest US$120 million to further grow Taobao.com's e-commerce marketplace with the goal of creating one million jobs for entrepreneurs in China.