Chinese Internet Shops Won 70% of Russia's Cross-Border Shopping in 2014

Some $3.5 billion out of $5 billion that Russians spent on foreign internet websites in 2014 were spent on Chinese websites, according to the study by East-West Digital News (EWDN) agency and Russian internet company Yandex.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Chinese online shopping websites accounted for 70 percent of cross-border online payments made by Russian customers in 2014, the study by East-West Digital News (EWDN) agency and Russian internet company Yandex said.

According to the study, some $3.5 billion out of $5 billion that Russians have spent on foreign internet websites in 2014 were spent on Chinese websites.

In 2014, Russian customers made some 50 million orders on Chinese Internet shops, which is a 40 percent increase from the 2013 figures.

The studies suggest that AliExpress online retail service was Russia's most visited Chinese e-commerce site, followed by China's largest consumer-to-consumer platform TaoBao and Tmall, formerly Taobao Mall, a website for business-to-consumer retail. All three websites belong to Hangzhou-based Alibaba Group Holding. The company's revenue for the 2013-2014 fiscal year amounted to $8.4 billion.

In 2014, Russia's Yandex.Money online payment service began working with almost 40 large and medium Chinese online shops becoming the most frequently used payment service in Russia's cross-border online trade.