Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group has announced that the gross merchandise volumes in two of its online marketplaces, Taobao and Tmall, exceeded 1 trillion yuan (around $161bn) in the first 11 months of 2012.
This was a 58% rise on a year ago and reflects the exponential growth in China’s online retail market where nearly 16% of the 1.34 billion population shops online, according to Reuters, and equivalent to 2% of the country’s gross domestic product.
Alibaba statistics indicate that over half of its online shoppers are under the age of 30.
"This is a symbolic milestone in that it shows e-commerce has become an intrinsic part of how Chinese consumers shop for goods and services,” Alibaba spokeswoman Florence Shih said. “We are seeing high-speed growth in the third- and fourth-tier cities, even outpacing consumer spending growth in first- and second-tier cities.”
Yahoo owns around 20% of Alibaba Group.