E-Commerce Barriers in South China: The Broader Perspective

In the middle of the last decade China began to develop the use of the Internet. Within a few years, the World Wide Web (WWW) had experienced rapid growth in terms of network infrastructure, shopping behaviour and numbers of Internet users. China currently maintains annual economic growth higher than anywhere else in the world. Consequently an increasing number of businesses are seeing China as an attractive market opportunity. Many such businesses are seeking to use the Internet as their point of access. This study identifies the major barriers to e-commerce adoption as perceived by both Internet users and businesses in the South China region. South China was chosen as the target population for this study because of the prevailing economic conditions that exist in that region. The study commences with secondary research that identifies the main impediments to ecommerce. These include lack of a nationwide credit card system and high Internet access costs. To compliment this research the results of a unique online survey of Chinese Internet users is presented. Over two thousand responses were received and analysed. These data provided deeper insights into the main impediments to e-commerce as perceived by Chinese Internet users. The views of businesses were also investigated through a series of interviews. Many of the views from users as well as businesses were found to be similar, with concerns about government policy, security and privacy. The paper summarizes the main findings of this research and concludes with ways in which these barriers may be removed or their impacts lessened.