E-commerce retail sales in China more than doubled from a year earlier to 211.8 billion yuan ($31 billion) in the first half this year, along with the rapid expansion of e-shopping amid the government drive to make the economy more consumer-dependent, an industry report showed.
Retail sales at e-shops more than tripled between 2007 and 2009, much faster than the averaged annualized 18 percent growth of retail sales in general during the same period, according to the annual report on China's Internet market released by Alibaba, the nation's largest Nasdaq-listed e-commerce company Friday.
Total turnover of China's e-commerce reached 3.8 trillion yuan last year, up 22 percent year-on-year, according to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce.
The Alibaba report said some 65 million Chinese individuals and 12 million enterprises had opened e-shops by the end of June.
At Taobao.com, China's largest consumer auction site, some 70 percent of sellers are aged between 21 and 30.
The number of e-shoppers hit 142 million, or one third of the nation's total online population, the world's biggest.
"Consumers have adapted to e-shopping. They are taking advantage of low online prices and the expanding logistics network across the country," Sheng Zhenzhong, senior analyst with Taobao's research center, told Xinhua.
E-commerce created more than 1.3 million jobs in the world's most populous country last year, as e-shopping has become a new platform for Chinese start-ups.
