By China CSR Watch (www.csrcsr.com)

Alibaba.com, a leading business-to-business e-commerce website in China that is 40% owned by Yahoo!, was criticized for allowing online trading of shark fins.

“Alibaba, which has more than 180 companies engaged in buying or selling shark fins, is “the New York Stock Exchange of shark fins,” quoted in the Business Week report on July 20th.

“Yahoo’s response to the news report was, ‘We know the sale of shark products is both legal in Asia and a centuries-old tradition. This issue is largely a cultural-practices one’”, according to ViceZilla’s Views.

Many shark fin traders can still be found at Alibaba.com as of July 23rd.

Sources (in Chinese and English):
Sina News: http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2007-07-21/11351628915.shtml
Business Week: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul2007/gb20070720_756191.htm
Alibaba: http://www.alibaba.com/buyeroffers/Shark.html
ViceZilla’s Views: http://vicezilla.com/views/index.php/2007/06/28/yahoo_has_1_billion_dollar_stake_in_succ
Stop Shark Finning: http://www.stopsharkfinning.net/