NewChina's mobile e-commerce market miles ahead of US, to grow to US$505 billion by 2016
Retail transactions over mobile devices expected to surpass US$505 billion in the country in 2016
Mobile e-commerce sales will account for more than half of online retail shopping in China by next year, according to the latest data.
New York-based research firm eMarketer predicted mobile e-commerce sales would make up 10.9 per cent of all retail sales in the country next year and 55.5 per cent of online retail shopping as the sector grew 51.42 per cent to a record US$505.74 billion from an estimated US$333.99 billion this year.
That milestone would further widen the gap between China and the United States in terms of total retail transactions over smartphones, media tablets and other mobile devices.
Mobile e-commerce sales in the US are forecast to advance 28.41 per cent to US$96.22 billion from an estimated US$74.93 billion this year, while those transactions will only account for 1.9 per cent of total retail sales in the world's largest economy.
Monica Peart, a forecasting analyst at eMarketer, said in a report that those figures indicated China's retail market was more digital, and specifically more mobile, than that in the US.
"An overwhelming majority of China's internet users are regularly accessing the internet via mobile phones in 2015, 87.4 per cent versus that of US internet users at 74.6 per cent," Peart said.