21:32, 15-Feb-2018
CNY Celebration: Spending spree across China
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We start the show with the lunar new year celebration. The seven-day holiday break is expected to witness robust growth in consumption. And we are seeing great changes in people's consumption habits. Ming Tian has the story.
The lunar new year, which will kick off tomorrow, means major spending in China on travel, clothes, and most importantly, food. Here in China's northeast province of Heilongjiang, people are doing some last-minute shopping before the big new year's eve feast.
"I'm looking to buy some candy and a couple bottles of wines."
China's consumption enjoyed explosive growth last year. That led to changes in people's consumption habits. 2017 saw positive trends in multi-channel services, known as online-to-offline services. Customers appreciate the convenience and quality of O2O services, particularly in travel, dining and transportation.
China has emerged as the world leader in e-commerce in less than a decade. It has more online shoppers than any other nations. China is home to 730 million internet users, and accounts for 40 percent of the world's retail. Its mobile payment market is a whopping 11 times the size of the US market.
The interconnected digital economy is changing Chinese people's lifestyle, both in large cities and remote areas. The central government expects China to maintain strong growth in consumption this year as it deepens supply-side structural reforms.