China e-commerce figures: more shoppers, more money

Over 25% of Chinese Internet users shop online

According to the white paper on the Internet released by China's government (see our previous post China's Internet censorship will continue), Chinese online shopping population hit 100 million in 2009.

As the whole Chinese Internet population was estimated at 384 million people at the end of 2009, it means that more than one-quarter of people connected to the web actually shop online.

China's e-commerce growing fast

The paper states that 'E-commerce is undergoing rapid development', affirmation confirmed by the trade volume of e-commerce in China which surpassed 3.6 trillion yuan (approximatively $525 billion) in 2009, compared to 1.95 trillion yuan in 2008 (approximatively $284 billion).

More and more businesses are indeed using e-commerce in China: over 50% of large enterprises (30% of small and medium sized companiers) have established e-commerce systems.

Moreover, specialized e-commerce services are also taking shape to support the growth, with systems like digital authentication, e-payment and logistics gradually being formed.

New online retailers actors

China's ecommerce market is undergoing several movements after Taobao and Yahoo! Japan launched the world's largest ecommerce platform on June 1st. 

In addition, Japan’s largest online retailer Rakuten announced a joint venture with Baidu to launch an e-commerce platform in the second half of this year.