International online retail giant ASOS have announced they are to launch an online marketplace, allowing users to sell their new and second hand clothes at a fixed price via the ASOS site to buyers in all of it’s markets.

The global success story that is ASOS will advise sellers on how best to present their clothes in order to help them maximise their sales, and will also allow independent retailers to set up their own stores, similar to the marketplaces of Amazon and EBay’s fashion outlet.

Today is an historic day for internet users across the globe, a report by the BBC announced on its news site earlier, as it marks the day that non-Latin web addresses have gone live.

Net regulator the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) have switched on the long awaited system which allows full web addresses to feature no Latin characters. This means the arrival international domains which can be written in scripts such as Arabic, Chinese and Cyrillic.

The world's top fashion designers and luxury retailers are looking to Asian markets to increase sales, a Reuters article has reported.

Singapore, which has the highest density of millionaires in the world, last week hosted the Audi Fashion Festival, a showcase of some of the world's leading designers. Singapore hopes to join cities such as Paris and New York as a renowned fashion capital, and it could easily achieve this, as the city's abundance of luxury malls attract people wanting to spend big from all over Asia.

The internet savvy youth of China are going gaga for English words and phrases, an article in The Times reported yesterday.

According to the article, the phrase ‘Oh my Lady Gaga!’ is popping up all over Chinese blogs and forums, replacing their past fascination with the English phrase ‘Oh my God!’.

Russia’s government last month announced possible plans to launch a national search engine, their aim being to have tighter control over filtration, and to ensure the ‘safe access of information’. The venture would set them back around $100 million (around £65 million), and it would be a long and lengthy process to overtake the market leader Yandex, who currently hold 62.8% of the market share in Russia. Despite the plans being questionable, the announcement does bring to attention certain aspects of the Russian search market.

If there’s one area of the high street that has been less affected by 2009’s financial downturn than others it is fashion retail. In fact, some high street giants such as Topshop and Miss Selfridge, both part of the Arcadia Group, reported record profits for last year.

What’s even more evident is the marked, and continuing growth reported by online fashion retailers. The e-commerce industry body IMRG reports that online sales of clothing, shoes and accessories were up by 18% from Dec 2008 – 2009, and that fashion e-tailers were the leaders in the UK online market.