Chinese shopping search engine Etao, a unit of Alibaba Group, aims to garner a 15-20 percent share of Chinese market traffic over the next three years, its parent said.

Alibaba Group, 40 percent owned by Yahoo Inc, said Etao was not immediately concerned about profitability as it focuses on increasing market share.

Local media reported last month that Alibaba Group would invest 1 billion yuan ($157.2 million) in Etao to increase traffic to the site.

The goal is to make Etao the most complete and most convenient platform for consumers making shopping decisions. Alibaba said in an emailed statement to Reuters late on Monday.

Etao employs about 1,500 people.

China is the world's largest Internet market with more than 480 million users. About 36 percent of Internet users shop online, according to government statistics.

(Reporting by Jerry Huang; Writing by Melanie Lee; Editing by Chris Lewis)

China