Online scams cost web users 149b yuan
Print Edition
China’s online population lost an estimated 149.15 billion yuan (US$24.42 billion) in 2013 to Internet-based scams, according to an Internet Society of China (ISC) survey yesterday.
The figure was a conservative estimate, according to the survey, which showed around 55 percent of victims lost cash below 100 yuan while 13.4 percent lost more than 600 yuan.
Online shopping was the most risky area, with money being swindled through scams via text messages, malicious charging on prepaid cell phone accounts and Internet fraud.
Smartphones carried the bigger risks compared to desktops and laptops, showed the survey, released at an annual Internet conference in Beijing. Data showed 77 percent of the country’s netizens were going online via smartphones last June.
ISC Vice President Gao Xinmin said at the conference that the Chinese online population hit 608 million last September — 45.4 percent of the country’s population.
Web users created 1.8 trillion yuan worth of retail sales in the past year, according to ISC data.
This accounts for 8.5 percent of the 21.13 trillion yuan worth of total retail sales reported in the first 11 months of 2013.
Online retail sales are forecast to grow to 3 trillion yuan by 2015, accounting for 10 percent of shopping transactions, according to the data.
Major Internet firms have been scrambling for bigger market share by offering payment services.
On Tuesday, China’s leading microblogging service provider Sina Weibo opened a payment service in cooperation with Alipay, the payment unit of e-commerce company Alibaba, to rival Tencent’s WeChat.
Alipay is the most widely-used third-party online payment solution in the country, while WeChat has become the most popular multi-media app, combining instant messaging, content sharing and payment.
Weibo users will be able to pay for a meal via their Weibo account on their phone by scanning a code.
Data showed transaction value via mobile payment services hit 274.79 billion yuan in the third quarter of 2013, up 185.3 percent from the previous three-month period, according to the China e-Business Research Center.
“The Chinese Internet economy is in the face of a new wave of rapid development,” Gao said.
However, ISC vice secretary-general Shi Xiansheng said that the protection of netizens’ interests should be made the priority as Internet technologies continue to develop rapidly.
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