Shoppers splash out to fight the smog

The pollution choking large parts of China has boosted online sales of masks and air purifiers, with around 870 million yuan (US$143 million) spent on such items this year, online shopping site Taobao said yesterday.

The pollution choking large parts of China has boosted online sales of masks and air purifiers, with around 870 million yuan (US$143 million) spent on such items this year.

Shanghai residents spent 69.85 million yuan and showed the most interest in masks and purifiers among shoppers from across the country, followed by those in the city's neighboring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, China's largest consumer-oriented shopping site said.

Searches for masks and air purifiers soared at the beginning of December and peaked on December 6, when Shanghai and neighboring regions were suffering their most serious air pollution, with the air quality index and PM2.5 density at their worst since official records began about a year ago.

In Shanghai, searches for air purifiers in the past 30 days had rocketed 679 percent compared with the same period of last year while interest in masks rose by 312 percent, Taobao said.

Across the country as a whole, the number of people buying masks surged 181 percent compared to last year, while air purifier sales soared 131 percent, Taobao added.

Another online shopping site, 360buy.com, said its sales of masks and air purifiers nationwide had soared by 6,050 percent and 685 percent compared with last year.

"The figures are not unexpected as people care more about the harm of bad air with a raft of media reports these days, and it became a craze to grab such kind of products, boosting their sales," said Chao Gang, director of the marketing management research center of the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.