Alibaba.com passed a milestone in the U.K. recently as the internationale-commerce website surpassed 1 million registered users. The company said British small business owners in the past two years have embraced the site with membership growing 51% year on year. Between March 2010 and March 2011, an average of 29,000 new users registered every month.

Currently the U.K. accounts for 5% of all Alibaba.com international registered users and makes up one third of all European registered users. According to the B2B website’s data, the U.S. was the largest export market for U.K. SMEs in the first quarter of 2011, accounting for one in 10 buyer enquiries. This figure has almost doubled since the same period last year, suggesting that British suppliers are strengthening trade relationships with small business buyers in America.On the import side, China remained the most popular market, with 70 percent of U.K. buyer enquiries being sent to Chinese businesses.