China hopes to build "digital silk road" buoyed by Alibaba's success

As China's 300m members of the middle class drive domestic consumption with their increasing use of smart mobile devices, plans for the expansion of China's e-commerce industry are being buoyed by the recent successes of the Alibaba group. By building a "digital silk road" China hopes to boost "consumption power" in China even further and continue to drive the economy forward, so that it will account for 50% of the global e-commerce retail market by 2018. China's potential online successes may also help the Asia-Pacific region’s total sales to reach projections of $1.892tn. Indeed, eMarketer has suggested that e-commerce in China is forecast to account for 28.6% of total retail sales in the country by 2018, up from an estimated 15.9% for 2015.

Alibaba founder and chairman Jack Ma stands like the master of ceremonies as he celebrates record online shopping transactions during ‘Singles Day’ on November 11 in Beijing. Photo: Reuters