Word on the street is that Taobao handled 100 billion rmb worth of transactions in ‘08. As other industries zig to avoid the collapsing economy, Taobao can zag to start planning for global domination.  First they slap down 1.3 billion to build the “Taobao City” superlair. Then they put out the call to hire 5,000 new henchmen. There has probably never been a better time to for businesses to buy/build/hire. Yay Taobao!