The market research company IDC has published a white paper about China's e-commerce industry, and it states the trade volume of China's e-commerce increased by about 20% in the year 2008, forming a big contrast with the macroeconomic downturn.

The total trade scale of China's e-commerce industry reached CNY1.951 trillion in 2008, increasing over 20% compared with the CNY1.608 trillion in 2007. Of this revenue, e-commerce that targeted individual consumers increased by about 30%. The report further points out that China's e-commerce industry will maintain a rapid growth in the next five years and by 2010 its total trade is expected to reach CNY3.22 trillion.

Consistent with the expansion of e-commerce, the number of e-commerce merchants in China has also been growing. According to 2008 Chinese Internet Merchant Report, the number of frequent users of e-commerce in China increased from four million in 2004 to 35.5 million in 2007. IDC says although 2008 is a hard year for enterprises, the number of Chinese Internet merchant still grew to nearly 50 million and the number is expected to reach 100 million by 2012.

By the estimation of IDC, Chinese auction website Taobao.com, one of the largest Internet shopping platforms in China, realized over CNY100 billion trade volume in 2008. The company's total trade volume in 2007 was CNY43.3 billion.