Jumbo sale: two 747 jets auctioned on Chinese online platform

BEIJING: The sky seems to be the limit for Chinese online shopping portal Taobao, which auctioned off two Boeing 747 jumbo jets on Tuesday for nearly US$50 million.

Chinese air cargo company SF Airlines bought the pair for over 320 million yuan (US$48 million), the official Xinhua news agency reported.

After six failed attempts over two years to sell three 747s from defunct carrier Jade Cargo International, a court in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen decided to auction them online.

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The jets were put up for sale Monday on Taobao, which handles billions of dollars in orders for everything from everyday items like food and stationery to the bizarre -such as giant cargo planes and even bottled flatulence.

The third freighter could not be sold because only one buyer registered for the auction.

Taobao, the shopping platform of e-commerce giant Alibaba, is immensely popular in China and estimated to hold more than 90 per cent of the consumer-to-consumer market.

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Its hundreds of millions of users include courts trying to auction off assets of bankrupt businesses.

Xinhua said Taobao started a judicial sales platform in 2012 with which most Chinese courts have registered.