Monday, October 15, 2012

China's online trade hits $45 billion in Q2, Taobao reigns: report

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's e-commerce industry grew 45 percent 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 percent 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 percent and 5.5 percent 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 percent of the market, E-commerce China Dangdang Inc had 0.7 percent and Suning 1.2 percent, the Analysys International report showed. Yihaodian, China's top online supermarket in which Wal-Mart Stores Inc owns more than 50 percent, accounted for 0.3 percent of transaction volume.

E-commerce represented just 4 percent of China's retail sales in 2011, but the transaction value jumped 30 percent to 5.8 trillion yuan ($925 billion), equivalent to 12.5 percent of China's gross domestic product, China's vice minister of commerce, Jiang Yaoping, said in May. ($1 = 6.2707 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Chris Gallagher)



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