Online shopping through mobile devices is growing rapidly among Chinese, says a new report.

China Internet Network Information Center says the number of Chinese online shoppers hit 242 million at the end of December, 23 per cent (55.5 million) of which bought via mobile devices.

With the rapid development of the Internet economy, the number of mobile e-commerce applications increased rapidly. The percentage of netizens who purchased something online increased 6.6 per cent with 2.36 times user number than that of 2011, said the report.

China’s mobile netizens kept up their rapid growth rate, amounting to 420 million with annual growth rate of 18.1 per cent, which is far more than the general growth rate of the number of people online overall.

The report suggests that mobile e-commerce has great potential in the Chinese market.

“Shopping on mobile devices has become an important driver of the growth of online shopping in China,” concluded the report.

GB