SMBs in China extending their business with e-commerce

Daniel Sim, country head of AMI (Access Markets International) Partners China forecasts that by the end of 2008 45% more Chinese SMBs (small and midsize businesses) will operate e-commerce Web sites against the figures of the previous year. In 2007 there were 135,000 SMBs in China with e-commerce facility while this year is expected to see 200,000 and the figure is predicted to grow to 370,000 SMBs by 2010.

The expert notes that small businesses will be "largely responsible" for the rise in e-commerce sites, as "the Internet as an information exchange medium continues to flourish and Web activities continue to increase in China".

According to a latest survey of MasterCard new markets such as China have been helping to contribute to growth in online shopping payments, thanks to the rising upper-middle income urban elite demographic.

Internet serves to small businesses as a marketing tool. More and more SMBs are adopting e-commerce features such as online shopping, e-payment gateways and even web-surveys for better customer relationship management.

Yet Daniel Sim says that the positive forecast for e-commerce refers to e-commerce used as an extension of a company's business model while full e-commerce-only dotcom businesses is expected to grow to 6% - a growth of 4% over 2007.