Shanghai, CHINA and Austin, TX USA [February 20, 2013] – Appconomy, Inc., a leading developer of mobile commerce applications and marketing tools, announced today the launch of a service from its Cloud Commerce Platform that is designed specifically for merchants selling on Taobao, the world’s largest e-commerce marketplace. By using the service, Taobao merchants can create a native mobile app of their store, in less than 5 minutes and with no technical knowledge required. The Appconomy service is named Zhangyingbao in China (or 掌营宝) which, loosely translated, means “treasure in the palm of your hand,” and is available for free, worldwide. In testing since late November 2012, more than 2,000 Taobao merchants have generated mobile apps using the Appconomy service for Taobao.

“Appconomy’s service for Taobao merchants provides an answer for the very real and difficult question that more than 1 million merchants operating as virtual stores face in a crowded and highly competitive environment like Taobao, which is: ‘How do I form lasting relationships with my customers and reach them where they spend most of their time?’” said Brian Magierski, CEO and president of Appconomy, Inc. “The Zhangyingbao service, through the merchant-specific mobile apps it generates, offers a robust solution to the problem, providing merchants a unique, convenient option that saves on advertising costs, enhances their shop’s popularity, and builds strong relations with their customers via in-app notifications and other communications.”

Taobao, which is primarily a consumer-to-consumer marketplace, similar to eBay, and its B-to-C sister marketplace TMall (similar to Amazon) are both operated by the Alibaba Group in the People’s Republic of China. According to Alibaba, in December 2012, its two sites collectively hit 1 trillion RMB in sales for the year (approx. $159 billion USD) making it the world’s largest e-commerce marketplace operator. Taobao’s most recent “Single’s day” promotion, on November 11, 2012 (also known as “double eleven”), reached a 24-hour transaction volume of 19.1 billion yuan (or more than $3 billion USD), which was larger than the entire spending online in the whole of the US on CyberMonday.

“Appconomy’s service for Taobao is a stellar example of our strong collaboration with our strategic partner and investor, Neusoft,” said Mr. Magierski. “By leveraging the Appconomy Cloud Commerce Platform and Neusoft’s integration and support services, we were able to create and launch a revolutionary service in a matter of weeks. With the Appconomy service for Taobao and other services offered through our Cloud Commerce Platform, we are positioning ourselves as one of the most influential mobile commerce companies in China.”

Taobao merchants and others can learn more about the Zhanyingbao service by visiting

http://www.appconomy.com/products/.

About Appconomy, Inc.

Appconomy operates a cloud-based platform for mobile marketing and commerce that directly connects consumers and merchants through its JinjinTM marketplace and apps for smartphones, tablets, and feature phones. For more.