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The Average Beijinger Spent $1446 Online in 2011

Now that 2011 is over, we’re starting to see some numbers that indicate with hard data what everyone already knew: this was a big year for e-commerce in China. The Beijing News is reporting today that the average Beijing internet user spent 9230 RMB ($1446) online in 2011, making Beijingers the second biggest-spending city in China for online shopping (per capita). Guangdong was number one, coming in first in overall spending and the per capita measurement. Beijingers made up more than 7 percent of China’s total online payments over the past year — that’s probably not a surprise to many people. What is surprising: according to the report, the driving force behind Beijing’s e-commerce love affair was “post-60s” and “post-70s” users in their 40s and 50s, not the younger white-collar “post-80s” generation that dominates other areas of China’s online space (especially social networking). 9230 RMB is already a pretty big amount, especially given that most people don’t shop for essentials like food online. Still, it’s hard to imagine that number won’t rise in 2012, especially given the increasing choice people have online in terms of products, platforms, and even payment systems.