China's online retail market thrives in 2016: Report

SHANGHAI - China's online retail market volume hit a record high in 2016, with a year-on-year growth of 39.1 percent to 5.3 trillion yuan ($770 billion), according to a report released by China's e-commerce research center.

The online retail market accounted for 14.9 percent of total retail sales of consumer goods, a year-on-year increase of 2.2 percentage points, according to the report.

A total of 500 million people engaged in online shopping in 2016, up by 8.6 percent from 2015, the report said.

Notably, the online shopping volume in China's rural areas jumped 36.6 percent to 480 billion yuan in 2016 and is expected to reach 600 billion yuan this year. The cross-border e-commerce market was up 33.3 percent to 1.2 trillion yuan.

The revenue of major courier companies soared 44.6 percent to 400 billion yuan in 2016.