The story appears on

Page A6

January 24, 2017

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeNation

Internet shopping boost for economy

THE number of Internet users in China — already the world’s highest — reached 731 million in December, authorities said, as e-commerce drives consumer demand across the country.

Total Internet users rose 6.2 percent from the end of December 2015 and equals the entire population of Europe, the China Internet Network Information Center said.

E-commerce is a vital part of the government’s efforts to make China into a consumer demand-driven economy and the government is pushing an “Internet plus” project that aims to expand the role of online technology in the economy.

The number of people who go online through cellphones has reached 695 million, or 95.1 percent, as computers lose their appeal, according to the center.

Online consumption has become an increasingly important part of the economy, it said.

As of December 12, the number of people in China who used online payments had reached 475 million, up 14.0 percent year on year, it said.

In one example of the growing power of China’s online shoppers, consumers spent US$17.8 billion in e-commerce giant Alibaba’s biggest online shopping promotion on November 11 last year, more than twice the five-day desktop sales from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday in the US last year.


 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend