The first batch of 10,000 contracted customers of Chinese search engine Baidu.com's (BIDU) e-commerce platform are now able to enjoy the company's C2C services.

Compared with rival Chinese C2C platform Taobao.com, the platform of Baidu is a bit simpler, which follows the consistent simple and direct style of the website. Operated under the domain name of mall.baidu.com, the platform will eventually be independent with its own domain name. However, because the platform is not fully opened, it will currently use a second-tier domain name of Baidu.

Starting from 20:00, September 25, 2008, users of Baidu's C2C platform can decorate their online shops and upload their products after they activate their Baifubao account, a newly launched online payment platform of Baidu, and finish with their real-name registration.

Li Mingyuan, general manager for Baidu's e-commerce business, told local media that the development of Baidu's online trading platform is undergoing in accordance with the company's schedule and the entry of the first batch of contracted customers means all the preparations for the opening of the platform are ready. In the future, Baidu will mobilize its own resources, including the search engine and the community, as well as that of its partners in banking and logistics sectors to offer a platform to release the shopping enthusiasm for all of Baidu's supporters.