Online shopping bill estimated to hit ¥230b

China's online shopping market is to soar 80% to ¥230 billion this year, an iResearch report has predicted. The size was up 128.5% to ¥128 billion in 2008 and 66 times that in 2003. C2C deals made up 93% of the turnover. Most of online shoppers had lower incomes, with 82% getting paid below ¥3,000 a month. Taobao.com, a unit under Alibaba Group (HKG: 1688), was responsible for ¥100 billion of the market last year.

$1 = ¥6.8