Internet sales in China, the world's biggest web market, soared 60% in the first half of 2010, as more consumers and businesses went shopping online, state media said today.
Transactions hit 2.25 trillion yuan ($331 billion) in the months from January to June, the China Daily said, citing a report by the China e-Business Research Centre. That compares with 3.6 trillion yuan for all of 2009.
The data covers business-to-business, business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer transactions. E-commerce has been expanding in China as more companies set up online stores to cut costs and improve efficiency.
Underlining the growing appeal of the country's Internet market, which now has around 420 million web users, sportswear giant Adidas said this week it had opened a flagship online store on China's largest auction site Taobao.
Web sales in China are likely to soar more than 35% a year on average in the next few years as more people shop online and more convenient ways of paying for transactions, such as using mobile phones, are made available.
There are currently about 130 million online shoppers in China, the report said. Analysts said the official forecast was conservative.
