Taobao's rise in Hong Kong may pave way for global expansion

When Polly Ng Po-yu was preparing for her wedding last year, she did most of her shopping on Taobao.com From her bridal bouquet to the wedding gown, almost every purchase was made through the mainland e-commerce website.

The administrative assistant was surprised by how easy it was to use the site, launched by Alibaba Group in 2003.

"While I didn't want a luxurious wedding, I still had lots of things to buy like wigs and hula skirts for games on my wedding day. But it took just a week to get everything I wanted," Ng says. "My made-to-measure wedding gown was only about HK$600; it would have cost nearly HK$1,000 to rent one from a Hong Kong shop for the day."

Her invitation cards were also ordered through Taobao, costing HK$2,000, a quarter of what it would cost at a local printer. Even photos of her wedding were developed by a printer found on the site.

Ng became a convert to online shopping after discovering Taobao five years ago and now browses the site almost daily.

"I kind of got addicted to it," she says. "Except for food and expensive items like mobile phones and cameras, I buy nearly everything on Taobao. I found their payment service, Alipay, very secure."

Ng has never had problems with her purchases, in part because of the way money is handled with Alipay - money isn't released to the retailer until the customer receives the product.