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 | Friday, April 28, 2000, updated at 13:21(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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E-commerce Could Grow 500 Percent in 2000E-commerce sales in China totalled just 55 million yuan (US$6.63 million) in 1999 but could grow 500 percent this year, according to a survey released Thursday.China had 800 Web sites conducting online sales by the end of March, said the report compiled by two new Internet survey firms with links to China's Ministry of Information Industry. The Internet accounted for just 0.018 percent of sales in China, compared with a 1.4 percent rate in the United States, said the Center for Computer Industry Development and CCIDNet Consulting. Despite a per capita income of just 5,500 yuan (US$662.7) a year in cities, and even less in the countryside, China is regarded as a promising e-commerce market because of its vast size and rapidly growing Internet use. China has 8.9 million Internet users, according to the latest official figures released in January. That group is doubling in size every six months. Online sales this year could total 350 million yuan (US$42.2 million), said the CCID report. By comparison, e-commerce in the United States last year totalled dlrs 31 billion. E-commerce in China has been handicapped by a lack of credit cards, though banks have developed alternative online payment systems. Other obstacles include a poor delivery network and reluctance among shoppers to buy goods they can't examine beforehand. Experts also question the reliability of Chinese statistics about e-commerce, suspecting some sites may be inflating their sales figures. Only 40 percent of Internet users have shopped online more than twice, but 90 percent expect to buy something this year, the report said. It said the most popular sellers online so far are books, computer hardware and software, compact disks and video compact disks. Shoppers' satisfaction was still low by international standards at 40 percent, compared with a world average of 90 percent, the report said. Their biggest concern is security, it found. "To build a secure shopping environment will be the issue to be solved for Chinese e-commerce development," the report said.
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