Alibaba Group's individuals-focused e-commerce site Taobao.com and Yahoo's (Nasdaq:YHOO) Japan subsidiary Yahoo Japan (Jasdaq:4689) will open a service allowing Taobao's Chinese vendors to market products to Japanese consumers and Japanese vendors on Yahoo Japan's shopping channel to target Chinese audiences, from June 1, according to an Alibaba Group announcement released May 10.

Taobao.com will launch a branded footwear sub-channel "Ming Xie Guan" at xie.taobao.com on May 10, Donews reported May 9 citing a Taobao.com employee. The site has secured more than 500 shoe brands, the report said.

Taobao.com plans to open other sub-channels such as a "House of Beauty" and a "Clothes Town" in future, to create more vertical segments, according to the report.

The e-commerce site also plans to launch a Taiwan sub-channel on July 1.