|
In a major effort to protect customers' interests, China has pledged to regulate online group buying, a thriving market with increasing illegal trading activities in recent years. The State Administration for Industry and Commerce urged its local authorities to examine the qualifications of online group buying providers and supervise them, according to the latest circular posted on the administration's website on Wednesday. Problems such as fraud, fake products and price hikes are arising frequently as the industry becomes popular in China, the circular said. "Disputes and complaints related to online group buying have seen a sharp rise," the administration noted. According to a report released on Wednesday by China E-Commerce Research Center, an independent research institute based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, a total of 203 million people participated in online shopping in China in 2011, up 28.5 percent from the previous year. The country's online retail sales reached 801 billion yuan ($126.5 billion) last year, a sharp increase from 514 billion yuan in 2010, the report said. As the group-buying market thrives in China, the number of group-buying websites hit 3,909 in December, up from 2,630 in January last year, the institute's statistics showed. The institute collected about 100,000 complaints related to e-commerce via its online platform last year, 25 percent of which involved online group buying, the report said. | 
