China Issues Draft Plan to Accelerate O2O Business Development
Gov.cn, 9/29/15
The General Office of China's State Council released a draft plan today to accelerate the innovation, transformation, development, and advancement of O2O businesses. A spokesperson for the State Council's E-commerce Department revealed that according to State Council statistics, China's O2O market reached RMB 304.94 bln during H1 2015, an 80% YoY increase, and explained that O2O refers to the discovery, reservation, and purchase of products or services online, followed by a consumer's visit to B&M locations to fulfill their order. The spokesperson further stated that B&M commerce has been experiencing lackluster growth and that the current trend in business is the shift towards O2O development.
The State Council's draft plan on O2O industry development states that the accelerated growth and evolution of mobile Internet and new-generation information technology has driven innovation in traditional business frameworks. O2O business has become one of the most rapidly growing sectors in China and its development will be of great importance during the transformation of offline shops and the development of the overall economy.
The key areas covered by the plan include suggested measures for:
1. Encouraging the innovation of O2O services, supporting business model innovation, encouraging technology innovation, and promoting product service innovation;
2. Stimulating brick & mortar (B&M) business development, furthering the reform and development of the retail industry, accelerating the restructuring of the wholesale industry, and transforming the ways in which the logistics industry is developing;
3. Building a complete market system by promoting the development of smart businesses, modernizing rural markets and unifying domestic and foreign markets;
4. Perfecting current policies and strategies.
Keywords: national statistics regulation government policy Internet market size retail rural State Council O2O H1 2015 wireless