Yahoo! Inc. and leading Chinese Internet portal SINA have agreed to form an auctions-based service for online buyers and sellers in China.

The deal aims to marry SINA's brand awareness in China and Yahoo's proven expertise in e-commerce, the companies said Tuesday in a joint statement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"With the rapid growth of the Chinese Internet market, we see that all indicators point to a strong surge in Chinese e-commerce," SINA chief executive Yan Wang said. "With SINA's brand and traffic in China coupled with Yahoo's technology, know-how and worldwide brand, we are creating an e-commerce platform that will be trusted and widely available to Internet users in China."

The world's largest online auction purveyor, eBay Inc., does not operate in mainland China.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo and SINA will create an e-commerce platform to provide fixed-price and bid-price sales of consumer goods in an online auction setting.

SINA operates three businesses: SINA.com for online media and entertainment, SINA Online for consumer fee-based online and wireless information services, and SINA.net, offering small and medium-sized enterprises information services.

The companies will also offer a platform to speed payment transactions. The service is expected to launch by the middle of the year.

According to China Internet Network Information Center, the government controlled regulator which manages Internet resources, there were 78 million Chinese Internet users as of last month.

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