China’s Alibaba Group has started addition social-networking function into its most important e-commerce platform, a shift it hope will induce user to use extra time and money on Alibaba Web sites.

Alibaba is crafting social-networking platforms purposely to balance two of its center operations. The beta edition of a Web site among Facebook-style application and a Twitter-style nosh is being graft on top of Taobao.com, Alibaba’s sale and retail Web site, a spokeswoman said. A more professional stage that the spokeswoman likens to LinkedIn is being added to Alibaba.com, the group’s business-to-business e-commerce operation.

The entertainment-based stage for Taobao in exacting combines normal social-networking function with unique features that sponsor online purchases. It goes a step further than hard work to mix e-commerce and social networking by Western companies like Amazon.com and Facebook, said Benjamin Joffe, CEO of digital strategy and research company +8* (Plus Eight Star).