BEIJING (AFX) - China's TaoBao.com, which runs an online consumer-to-consumer marketplace, said in a statement that its second quarter transaction volume reached 200 mln usd in gross merchandise volume.

Taobao's product listings reached 8.5 mln by the end of the second quarter and currently stand at 8.8 mln, according to the statement.

The firm said it had 7.2 mln registered users by the end of the second quarter. That number has since grown to 7.6 mln registered users.

Taobao.com is a division of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba.com.

Taobao and eBay Inc have been engaged in a high-profile fight for control of China's online auction market.

EBay entered China's online auction market by purchasing a 33 pct stake in Shanghai-based EachNet for 30 mln usd in 2002 and then took over the remaining 67 pct stake in July 2003 for 150 mln usd.

EBay, which held an 80 pct share of China's online auction market last year, is planning to spend 100 mln usd on brand promotion in China, and expects the country to become its largest market in five to 10 years.

Ebay recently launched its payment system PayPal in China to compete with Alibaba's payment solution, AliPay which was launched in October 2003.

Alibaba said AliPay's June transaction volume reached 17 mln usd, with 3.3 mln registered users.