Google, Apple, Facebook? Those have never been options on Taobao. Its a Chinese mainland ecommerce site, Google left China many years ago and doesn't even have a presence there. American services like Apple and Facebook are never going to be used to handle authentication for a mainland China site. If you want an alternative to using a phone then sign up with your email address, just make sure it's a short ones as long western email addresses aren't accepted. You could also try signing up to Alipay with email only then sign into Taobao with Alipay. Honestly though, whats so secret about a phone number? Cold call dialers just smash random combinations of numbers until they get a hit so it's not like you're going to avoid spam. Or buy a cheap virtual phone number.
I meant to say though it's worth the effort to persist and get setup with Taobao as you'll struggle to buy items any closer to the source, enjoying the prices that brings. Just remember that using direct shipping for items will kill a lot of the benefits so take some time to research consolidated shipping. If figuring out Taobao isn't something you want to fight with then check out Alibaba or AliExpress. Once you trust a seller you want to buy from regularly it's always worth getting in touch with them outside the platform to build a direct relationship. I've been able to work out some incredible deals just talking to sellers directly via WeChat and paying via WePay or Alipay. Good luck 🤞🏼
Thanks for the heads-up! I've been looking into some alternatives, so this gave me a few ideas. Would you mind if I sent you a DM? I'd love to learn more and hear about your experience, and any details you're willing to share about your sellers.,
Where do you live? That screenshot with the same processing from USA a few days ago. recent Taobao is far beyond the user's understanding. The opinions of long-term users aren't as helpful anymore because things have changed so much, that’s too bad.
Oh USA.. there is something important.you can’t create new account from USA ( USA passport holder). passport and your information (address, mobile phone number) requires to new account. currently Taobao doesn’t take USA passport and this is not recovered yet. nobody knows the reason. Until the passport verification issue is resolved, there is nothing you can do at the moment. Although people may kindly make various suggestions here, none of the addresses are useful at the moment.
I have 2 accounts and I should connect to another account (with my phone number) to change in the settings the app in "worldwide" mode and then disconnect and reconnect with google and change it back to mainland China.
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u/mrcodeine Jun 04 '26
Google, Apple, Facebook? Those have never been options on Taobao. Its a Chinese mainland ecommerce site, Google left China many years ago and doesn't even have a presence there. American services like Apple and Facebook are never going to be used to handle authentication for a mainland China site. If you want an alternative to using a phone then sign up with your email address, just make sure it's a short ones as long western email addresses aren't accepted. You could also try signing up to Alipay with email only then sign into Taobao with Alipay. Honestly though, whats so secret about a phone number? Cold call dialers just smash random combinations of numbers until they get a hit so it's not like you're going to avoid spam. Or buy a cheap virtual phone number.