E-commerce rakes up $ 2.68 tn in China despite slowdown

BEIJING: China's e-commerce raked up a whopping $ 2.68 trillion in 2014, registering a 59.4 per cent jump from the year before despite a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

China's e-commerce trade soared in 2014 thanks to improved Internet infrastructure and an increase in cellphone users, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Transaction volume of Chinese e-commerce platforms totalled 16.39 trillion yuan ($ 2.68 trillion) in the last year, up 59.4 per cent year-on-year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics stated today.

Confronted with sluggish domestic demand, China is counting on e-commerce to lead a new wave of consumption and prop up economic growth.

From cities to countryside e-commerce revolution is sweeping China as the number of Internet users went up to 668 million in China in the first half of this year, with about 90 per cent of the users accessing it through mobile phones.

Among the users, 27.9 per cent or 186 million are rural resident; the rest are from cities, majority of whom purchase goods online via e-commerce units such as Taobao, China's largest online shop promoted by e-commerce giant Alibaba.

In rural areas, more than 30 per cent of China's rural population are online.

E-commerce enables farmers to sell goods quickly and conveniently, shop for materials and obtain loans easily.

The Internet has made intensive mechanised production achievable, boosted yields with fewer labourers and made agriculture greener and food safer.

Given the bright outlook, Internet and e-commerce giants are making efforts to get a bigger share of the agricultural pie. Taobao.com has even launched an agricultural channel.

Its promoter, Alibaba, plans to invest $ 1 billion into 100,000 new service centres across villages in the next three to five years to help train farmers in Internet use.