(Yicai Global) March 26 -- A new app from Alibaba Group offers consumers more value for money through a direct factory order and delivery system. Officially released today, Taobao Special Offer throws down the gauntlet to rival Pinduoduo and is the most popular fee download on Apple's App Store in China.

The e-commerce giant rolled out its customer-to-manufacturer strategy at an online launch event today. C2M is a new e-commerce model where factories develop and make products based on actual consumer demand and supply products directly to users. The new platform will enable Alibaba to implement the strategy.

Taobao Special Offer will bring 10 billion new orders to merchants over the next three years, helping 1,000 producers upgrade to super factories with over CNY100 million (USD14.1 million) of output, said Wang Hai, Alibaba vice president and general manager of its Taobao C2M Business Unit.

Based on the strategy, Alibaba will ultimately develop 10 industrial clusters in China with over CNY10 billion of output, he added.

Alibaba started testing Taobao Special Offer in 2018 and hadn't promoted its full-scale use until today. The app is a direct competitor of Pingduoduo, an emerging e-commerce platform that sells low-priced commodities via social media-based marketing and group buying.

Before Taobao Special Offer, Alibaba launched Juhuasuan, a group-buying platform targeting low-priced goods, back in 2011. Wang pointed out that the positioning of Juhuasuan and Taobao Special Offer is not the same.

Juhuasuan focuses on certified products from brand owners, while Taobao Special Offer deals with unbranded commodities directly from factories. The two will join hands to explore markets in China's low-tier cities and rural areas.

Editor: Peter Thomas