Internet shopping in China hit a staggering 250 billion yuan (US$36.6 billion) in 2009 accounting for 1.97 percent of all domestic retail, the Beijing News reported Wednesday.

About 100 million Chinese shop online, most of which through consumer websites, or C2C, like Taobao.com, but it is business-to-consumer platform, or B2C, growing faster, according a report released by the investigation agencies Anylysys and iResearch.

“The online shopping industrial chain is developing more segments. More storage, service, express and techniques companies emerged to share the E-commerce market with C2C and B2C,” said an online food store manager, surnamed Wang.

(China Daily December 30, 2009)