The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) has just released the "2005 China E-commerce Market Survey Report", the first in-depth market survey conducted by the authoritative Chinese academy.

The report shows that by the end of December 2005, China's online shopper proportion reached 71.30%, which for the first time in history exceeded the average level of 70% in the Asia Pacific region.

Hangzhou-based C2C website Taobao.com ranked first by taking up 72.2% of market share.

The report says that China's e-commerce market transactions increased by 158% in 2005, and B2B is the main point of growth in the year, accounting for 98% of the total market.

Alibaba ranks tops in the B2B sector by taking up 87.2% of the market share.

The CASS report says that C2C was the most conspicuous area of development in 2005 and it would continue to rise in the coming years. CASS also says that local e-commerce websites has begun to gain an advantage over their foreign competitors.