China's customer-to-customer (C2C) trade will reach 67.8 billion yuan (US$9.16 billion) in 2008, up 65.2 percent, according to a nationwide survey released on Monday.

The survey showed that China's C2C trade reached 41.04 billion (US$5.55 billion) in 2007, up 90 percent compared to 2006.

C2C trade usually refers to web-based transactions between two consumers through the servers of an organization, such as sales and auctions.

The "Netguide 2008" survey, begun in January 2007, polled more than 300 websites, 270 enterprises and 50,786 people around the country.

The survey, conducted by the Data Center of the China Internet (DCCI) and Internet Society of China (ISC), reported that C2C firms like Taobao, eBay and Paipai were the major movers in the Chinese market.

"The C2C mode has great potential in China," said Fu Zhihua, director of the DCCI research department. Less than one third of Internet users had experience of C2C online shopping, most of them living in big cities.

The Netguide 2008 also forecast the trade volume would rise to 102.3 billion yuan (US$13.8 billion) in 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2008)