Mobile commerce is playing an increasingly significant role across Asia-Pacific according to a new report.

The study found that 55 per cent of internet users in China made a purchase via a mobile phone in the fourth quarter 2012, making China the country with the world’s highest mobile shopping penetration rate.

For an idea of just how dominant the mobile purchase channel is in Asia, consider the case of North America. There, just 19 per cent of US internet users and 13 per cent of internet users in Canada made a mobile purchase in the fourth quarter. In other words, China’s mobile purchase penetration rate is nearly triple that of the US.

eMarketer estimates that 270.9 million internet users in China will make an online purchase this year – counting purchases made through mobile devices. By 2016, eMarketer projects that number to rise to 423.4 million, and mobile will clearly play a significant role in that transition.

A similar dynamic is playing out across Asia. In South Korea, where 37 per cent of internet users made a mobile purchase in the fourth quarter, the rate of mobile purchase adoption was nearly double the rate in the US. Internet users in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Japan were all more likely than those in the US to rely on mobile purchasing.

A separate study of smartphone users worldwide, conducted by Nielsen, confirmed that higher percentages of internet users in Asia-Pacific countries are buying via mobile devices relative to their counterparts around the world.

From mobile shopping to mobile banking to mobile wallets, Nielsen found that smartphone users in China and South Korea were significantly more likely to engage in a variety of m-commerce activities than smartphone users in any other country it studied in 2012.