The survey showed that 13 percent of the 525 Chinese respondents bought goods from South Korean Internet shopping websites. (image: Korea Bizwire)
BEIJING, May 21 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea was ranked as the second-most popular destination for Chinese Internet users buying high-quality goods via cross-border e-commerce platforms, a survey showed Thursday.
The survey, conducted by a Chinese research institute named i-research and commissioned by the Chinese unit of South Korea’s Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), showed that 13 percent of the 525 Chinese respondents bought goods from South Korean Internet shopping websites.
The United States topped the list with 35.8 percent and Japan came in third with 12.4 percent. Germany and Britain came in fourth and fifth with 7.4 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively, the KOTRA said in a statement.
Amid growing fears over quality and safety of local household goods and fake products, Chinese Internet users are increasingly buying goods from foreign e-commerce websites.
Such shoppers are called “haitao” in the Chinese language, which literally means “selects goods overseas.”
While there are no official data about the number of “haitao” shoppers, the KOTRA said about 15 percent of China’s 650 million Internet users might have bought goods from foreign Internet shopping websites, citing Chinese Internet data.
Cosmetics, clothes, baby products and technology goods were among the list of choices for the Chinese Internet shoppers.
Yoon Hyo-choon, head of the KOTRA’s Chinese unit, said in the statement that, “Despite higher prices and an average delivery period of two weeks, the number of ‘haitao’ people in China is expected to increase at a rapid pace with the level of income growing.”
(Yonhap)
