Taobao.com, the Internet shopping subsidiary of the Chinese B2B e-commerce group Alibaba, has announced that it will cooperate with China Mobile to launch a new mobile phone short message-based price comparison service.

With this new service, mobile phone users will be able to inquire about the prices of goods sold on Taobao.com when they are shopping in traditional department stores. By sending short messages, consumers will gain replies that show the price range of products from Taobao.com to make price comparisons.

The price for one inquiry short message is the same as that of a general one, depending on the specific plan for the user, and no extra service charge is required. The new service is currently available for China Mobile's mobile phone users, with exceptions for those in Henan, Hebei, Shandong, and Ningxia. No similar service is launched for users of China Unicom or China Telecom.