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China overtakes US in Global e-Commerce Sales

ChinaThe global e-commerce market continues to grow at a rapid pace and Asian markets are growing exponentially as the purchasing power of the customer and internet facilities continue to improve in Asia.

A recent report issued by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) stated that the United States has now dropped to second place in the e-Commerce market and that China is now at the top.

The e-Commerce industry generated $439 million in China during 2014 which accounted for over 7% of the country’s GDP.

One of the reasons for the explosive growth within the Chinese e-commerce market is because the government has focused its attention on improve digital infrastructure and internet speeds during the last few years. The government has focused on internet development during its 12th Five-Year Plan period which started in 2011 and will be completed in 15.

There are currently 328 e-commerce listed companies in China and four of these companies are in the top 10 list of internet companies in the world. One of these companies is e-commerce giant Alibaba. CNNIC shows that the number of online shoppers continues to grow in China each year and a total of 361 million customers bought goods and services via e-commerce websites in 2014.

Twenty percent of all customer demand was done via e-commerce websites and mobile phones were the number one platform that Chinese nationals used to access e-commerce websites and complete their purchases. The five year internet development plans are having a major impact as now 594 million Chinese can use their mobile phones to access the internet.

This is a significant increase of around 87% when compared to the period between 2005-2010.

In a statement, cyber-security expert Qin An from the China Institute for Innovation and Development strategy said

China has followed the world’s trend to become a leader in e-commerce thanks to its favourable policies and competitive enterprises.

Qin also stated that the cyber attackers continue to target China and that the government must take more steps to protect digital websites from being compromised by hackers. Qin believes that if the government focuses on cyber security during its next five year plan, the e-commerce industry will develop and expand at an even faster pace.

U.S based research company Statista released information which contradicted the China report stating that the e-commerce revenue generated in America was billions of dollars which still made America the number one country in e-commerce sales.