( CNN ) If there 's anything serving notice on the traditional bricks and mortar department store , then it 's China 's internet and e-commerce statistics . This year the number of internet users going online with a mobile device , such as a smartphone or a tablet , overtook those doing so on a personal computer for the first time . And not surprisingly , e-commerce is booming . `` One in two online citizens in China are now buying online . And that penetration is going up , '' said Shen Haoyu , CEO of JD.com China 's version of Amazon.com and e-commerce giant Alibaba.com 's biggest competitor . Only a few short decades ago , China had practically no consumer culture , but today millions of consumers daily buy computers , clothing and even fresh seafood online . `` In the future , e-commerce , the main battlefield will be on the mobile devices . By next year the overall smartphone users will exceed that of PC users . So you can see that mobile commerce is definitely the number one trend , '' said Yu Gang , CEO of Yihaodian , a Chinese online grocery business . While internet penetration can be problematic for developed markets where people are used to high street shopping , in China e-commerce entrepreneurs have little to worry about . With China 's total number of internet users up 2.3 percent to 632 million in 2014 , according to figures from the China Internet Network Information Center ( CNNIC ) , the country has the largest number of online users in the world . The data showed that 527 million people of this total went online via a mobile phone and that the number of online shoppers in the first half of 2014 surged by 42 % . China is currently the largest smartphone market in the world , having overtaken the US in 2012 . By 2018 , it will account for more than 33 % of the estimated 1.8 billion smartphones likely to be shipped that year , according figures from IDC . E-commerce in China is dominated by Alibaba but is closely followed by JD.com which is more than 17 % owned by its arch-rival Tencent Holdings . The big movers in mobile services in China at the start of 2014 were music , video , gaming , and group-buying , all of which shot up by double-digit increments . The fastest growing services were travel booking , up 65.4 % . Mobile payment , which increased 63.4 % , and online banking , which showed a rise of 56.4 % rise .
China is the fastest growing e-commerce geography in the world . Comment: China 's internet usage grew 2.3 % in the first half of 2014 to 632 million users . E-commerce in China is dominated by Alibaba but is closely followed by JD.com .