QR codes off Taobao

Taobao, China's largest online shopping platform owned by Alibaba Group, issued a notification to its users, requiring them to withdraw all the quick response (QR) codes linking out within a month, news portal ifeng.com reported Monday.

If users publish any QR codes after September 10, they will be considered as spamming and face punitive measures. Taobao said the move aims to prevent some sellers from using QR codes for advertising or even fraud, but analysts believe that the move is connected to the competition between Taobao and Tencent's WeChat, a social networking app that can lead consumers offline using QR codes.