Online habits in China

A recent report made by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reveals that Chinese internet users spend about 570 million hours online per day which means that the country has an immense potential for e-commerce.

The figure was determined by the BCG due to the assumption that last year 210 million and more internet subscribers were surfing the Web averagely for 2.7 hours a day.

"China has a large number of mobile and internet users. However, the penetration rate is still low," says David Michael, BCG's Greater China head.

According to the report in 2007 the number of Chinese using digital devices such as mobile phones and personal computers amounted 615 million or 47% of the population. The figure is expected to achieve 1.2 billion or more than 87 percent in 2015.

Still only 28% of Chinese expressed a desire for making purchases online while the number of those in the US accounts for 71%.

The reason of such reluctance to shop in the Web is Chinese customers’ concern about product quality, vendors' reliability and the possible loss of personal information.