Alibaba Group's wholly-owned subsidiary Alisoft will offer free Internet-based management software to all 42 million small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs) in China for at least 3 years. Shopkeeper currently offers an accounting and finance module, and an inventory management and a customer relationship management (CRM) module will become available in May 2009. Shopkeeper is designed as a tool to monitor business operations and financial status in a way that is understandable to business owners who do not have technical financial backgrounds.

Shopkeeper, a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, also enables users to make online payments via the company's Alipay online payment service, and it offers mobile access.

Subscribers of Shopkeeper may apply for loans under "Ali-Loan," the SME loan-assistance program initiated by Alibaba.com and supported by eight major banks in China. Alisoft will invest up to RMB1 billion over the next three years to cultivate the SME-focused software industry.

Alibaba operates a global online marketplace as well as the Chinese domestic Taobao consumer auction site, which was initially offered as a free service when competing with eBay. The company said recently it wants to enter the U.S. marketplace and has been in talks with companies to explore partnership opportunities.