In October 2000, Alibaba launched a new feature called “My Trade Activity,” which allowed members to aggregate and document offers made to and received from other members, and to generate quotes and purchase orders via online templates. The new service offered convenience for members while for thw first time capturing negotiations between them that might otherwise occur strictly offline. By November 23, some 153000 messages had been exchanged, split primarily between quotes (73000) and requests for quotes (64000). The volume of e-documentation members generated using this service had increased by one-third since launch.