As more consumers in China began to surf on the Internet, on-line shopping is expected to flourish, with several computer companies already reporting growing profits.

Zhang Chengguo, an economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, predicted that an increasing number of Chinese customers will go on-line during this holiday season, although electronic-commerce is not fully developed in the country.

An e-commerce operator, 8848.net, which opened an on-line supermarket in May this year, has scored surprising sales growth,.

The company's revenues grew from the first month's 500,000 yuan (about 60,200 USdollars) to 3.8 million yuan in September said.

However, China's on-line shopping is still hindered by several factors. Internet applications, to most Chinese surfers, are still limited to news and E-mail.

The e-commerce market is still immature because the country lacks a complete credit system and effective express network.

Justin Tang, chairman of eLong.com Corp., said that his company has sponsored a national campaign to teach website skills and arouse people's awareness of e-commerce.

The number of Internet users is growing rapidly in China, from four million in the first half of this year to an estimated 10 million by year's end.