Chinese Internet shopping website Taobao.com has announced that it has cooperated with its sister company Alipay.com and Bank of China in the launch of a co-branded credit card.

This is the first time that Taobao.com and Alipay.com, two subsidiaries of China's B2B e-commerce group Alibaba, have entered the Chinese credit card sector.

As a result of cooperation of the three parties, Taobao.com users who apply for this new credit card can link their Alipay accounts to it. Then these users can pay directly with their credit cards by merely provide their passwords when they want to complete an Internet payment via Alipay.

In addition, the holders of this BOC-Taobao credit card will be exempted from the limit of CNY500 for a single Internet payment. The triple financial guarantee mechanism established by Taobao.com, Alipay.com, and BOC will ensure that large transactions are handled smoothly.

According to Taobao.com's financial report, by the first half of 2009, the company had gained 145 million registered members, which accounts for 43% of the total number of Chinese netizens.