Thousands of small business owners launched an online protest against Taobao Mall, a unit of China’s Alibaba Group, over a fee hike that they claim puts them at a disadvantage to bigger businesses, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Taobao Mall, China’s largest business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce platform, said on Monday it will increase its annual membership fees from 6,000 yuan ($944) to between 30,000 yuan to 60,000 yuan depending on the type and scale of the business.