3rd Boeing 747 freighter sold on Taobao

SHENZHEN - A third Boeing 747 freighter was finally sold on Taobao, Alibaba's e-commerce platform, on Friday after it failed to find a buyer in a previous auction.

The plane was put up for sale for 98 million yuan ($14.8 million) Thursday. After 49 bids, a buyer with the username "HEFFETZ ESHEL" representing an overseas company won the bid at 146 million yuan.

"We had no idea who the buyer was before the deal, and the whole auction process was completed online," said Long Guangwei, deputy head of Shenzhen People's Intermediate Court, which supervised the auction.

Two other Boeing 747 freighters were successfully auctioned on Taobao's judicial sales platform in November and were handed over to the buyer, SF Airlines, earlier this month. They sold for a total of 320 million yuan.

The three freight planes were previously owned by Jade Cargo International, the first Chinese cargo carrier with foreign investment.

In addition to planes, other special auction items including villas and cargo vessels have been sold to overseas buyers via e-commerce platforms in recent years.

"There are increasing numbers of auctions completed on e-commerce platforms, which are attracting more and more overseas buyers," said Lu Weixing, manager of the auction department of Alibaba.