One in three Internet users shopped online in 2010 - MIIT
Shanghai. March 30. INTERFAX-CHINA - More than one in three Internet users in China made an online purchase last year, according to figures released March 29 by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
The figures show China's Internet user base reached 457 million in 2010, up 19.1 percent on a yearly basis, while the number of online shoppers rose 48.6 percent to 160.51 million for the same period.
Urban dwellers accounted for 72.7 percent of China's Internet user base with the average user spending 18.3 hours per week online, according to MIIT.
China's mobile Internet users totaled 303 million, while the country's Internet penetration rate reached 34.3 percent.
Online payment service users hit 137 million and roughly 36.13 million users made online travel bookings in 2010.
Micro-blogging services in China had 63.11 million users as of end-2010, while deal-of-the-day services like Groupon Inc.'s GaoPeng notched up 18.75 million users.
MIIT also found that more than 94 percent of China's small- to medium-sized enterprises used computers but only 43 percent had websites or an online retail presence.
-YXY