China's online trade hits $45 billion in Q2: Report

SHANGHAI: China's e-commerce industry grew 45 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter to reach 278.84 billion yuan ($44.5 billion) in transaction volume, with Alibaba Group's Taobao capturing 76 per cent of the market, an Internet research firm said on Tuesday.

The amount of trade conducted on Taobao Mall and Taobao Marketplace exceeded 200 billion yuan in the April-June quarter, far surpassing rivals Tencent Holdings and 360buy, which had 4.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent of the market, respectively, Analysys International said in a report.

China's e-commerce market is becoming increasingly cut-throat with firms launching price wars and promotions to capture users' attention.

Last month, local media reported that China's top planning body was investigating Suning Appliance, GOME Electrical Appliances Holding and 360buy for an e-commerce price war that may have resulted in customers being cheated. The firms have since said they are cooperating with the investigations.

Among smaller players, Amazon.com Inc had 0.8 per cent of the market, E-commerce China Dangdang Inc had 0.7 per cent and Suning 1.2 per cent, the Analysys International report showed. Yihaodian, China's top online supermarket in which Wal-Mart Stores Inc owns more than 50 per cent, accounted for 0.3 per cent of transaction volume.

E-commerce represented just 4 per cent of China's retail sales in 2011, but the transaction value jumped 30 per cent to 5.8 trillion yuan ($925 billion), equivalent to 12.5 per cent of China's gross domestic product, China's vice minister of commerce, Jiang Yaoping, said in May.

Source : Economic Times