The turnover of China's largest online shopping site www.taobao.com almost doubled to reach 80.9 billion yuan (US$11.8 billion) in the first half of the year, Taobao said Thursday.

Taobao recorded 41.3 billion yuan in turnover of the first half last year and 99.96 billion yuan for entire last year.

The turnover for the first half of the year represents 1.4 percent of China's retail sales, 0.4 percentage point higher than last year.

The number of transactions increased 184 percent in the first half, but the average turnover for each transaction was down 51.5 yuan, as a result of the impact of the global economic downturn, Taobao said.

The number of registered users at Taobao doubled to reach 145 million in the first half, accounting for 43 percent of Chinese netizens.

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2009)