China’s Online Retail Trade Tops All Globally

Beijing, Dec 17 (IANS) China's online retail trade ranked first globally from January to October, with a total of 2.95 trillion yuan (about $455 billion) in online transactions during the period, the media reported on Thursday.

The claim was made in a report titled "Internet Development In China Over the Last Two Decades", according to the People's Daily.

"As of July of this year, the number of netizens in China reached 668 million, which is the world's largest online population. There are four Chinese companies listed in the world's top 10 internet companies: Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu and JD.com," said Yang Shuzhen, head of the Chinese Academy of Cyberspace.

China has outstripped the rest of the world in online retail transactions to become the world's largest online retail market. In 2014, China's online retail sales reached 2.8 trillion yuan, accounting for 10.6 percent of total retail sales in the country.

From January to October 2015, total online transactions reached 2.95 trillion yuan.

During the online shopping festival on November 11, total sales on Alibaba and its affiliated platforms reached 91.2 billion yuan.

Growth of online retail sales comes from the parallel rapid development of mobile internet in China. As of June 2015, China's mobile phone users numbered 594 million, accounting for 88.9 percent of all netizens.

Among 374 million online shoppers in China, 270 million make online purchases using mobile phones. The development of mobile internet has also brought great changes to travel, car rental, takeout and medical services.