China's online retail industry sees new business models

BEIJING - New business models keep emerging and expanding their presence in China's online retail services industry, said an industry report by the China Center for Internet Economy Research.

In 2018, new business models, including social e-commerce and e-commerce based on user-generated content (UGC), were estimated to account for 32.12 percent of the gross merchandise volume (GMV) of the country's B2C online retailing, according to the report.

Although expecting the share to exceed 60 percent this year, the report said the new models have yet to be included in the country's current statistics of online retailing, and the scale of online retailing has therefore been underestimated.

The GMV of the country's B2C online retailing would have reached 6.6 trillion yuan ($957 billion) last year if new businesses such as WeChat Business and Pinduoduo had been counted, it said.

It added that with more market potential being unleashed, the e-commerce industry will further boost China's domestic consumption.