Taobao.com, the Internet shopping subsidiary of the Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba, has announced that the year 2011 will be a year of openness for Taobao.com, and the company will cultivate third-party developers, enterprises and service providers in various sectors.

The Internet retailer also announced it will establish a fund to encourage and support the development of third-party partners. The company plans to invest CNY300 million in this fund over the next three years.

Zhang Yong, chief financial officer of Taobao.com, told local media that Taobao.com insists on being the builder of infrastructures. Based on the opening of an API in 2008, the company will further open up to third parties to meet the demands of various parties along the e-commerce industry chain.

According to local media reports quoting Wang Wenbin, vice president of Taobao.com, by the end of 2010, Taobao's open platform had gained 110,000 registered developer partners and its API was invoked 700 million times every day. At present, there are over 200 cooperating partners approved by Taobao.com, covering operating, customer service, marketing, storage, and training industries. In 2011, Taobao.com will provide applicable business models for more third-party developers in the seller business, buyer business, wireless, group buying and logistics sectors.

Statistics from Taobao.com show that the 110,000 registered developers on its open platform have produced 36,000 online applications.