China recently overtook the USA as the biggest e-commerce market in the world and is set to be worth $541 billion by 2015.
This makes China an ideal location for expansion, with 49% of its population making an online purchase last year. This figure is set to rise to an unprecedented 71% by 2017, so expanding into this profitable international market is becoming more and more inviting for online businesses.
The Chinese e-commerce market is predominantly young, with 60% below the age of 30, and affluent; spending is highest in China’s tier one cities and those earning more than 5,000 Yuan a month are more likely to buy online.
It is also a market dominated by mobile commerce, with 464 million of its 591 million internet users choosing to go online via a smartphone or wireless device.
Baidu is China’s most prominent search engine and it currently holds almost two thirds of the market share. Google is far less popular in China and only has a meagre 2.88% market share, down from 15.7% in 2012. Like Google, Baidu rewards sites that offer the user high quality content, a great experience and original, useful information.
Here are some interesting statistics:
- China had 591 million internet users as of August 2013
- 464 million of these used smartphones and other wireless devices to connect to the internet
- China’s e-commerce market has grown 71% annually since 2009
- Third-party payment companies Tenpay and Alipay account for 67.8% of online payments in China
- Baidu, China’s most popular search engine, has a 63.16% market share
