South Korea’s e-commerce sales hit new high in 2013

South Korea’s e-commerce sales grew to an all-time high last year, but the growth rate slowed from a year earlier, South Korean News Agency (Yonhap) reported a government report. Online sales totaled about 1,204.1 trillion won (US$1.12 trillion) in 2013, up 5 percent from the 1,146.8 trillion won tallied in the previous year, according to the report by Statistics Korea. The amount is the largest ever since related data started to be compiled in 2001, but the growth rate slowed from the previous year’s 14.7 percent gain. The report showed that business-to-business (B2B) transactions, which made up more than 90 percent of all cyberspace sales, came to 1,095.69 trillion won, up 4.2 percent from a year earlier. Business-to-government (B2G) sales also gained 13.1 percent on-year to 70.65 trillion won. Business-to-consumer (B2C) deals grew 15 percent to 24.33 trillion won while consumer-to-consumer (C2C) transactions jumped 11.7 percent to 13.41 trillion won, the report showed. Online shopping sales mostly involving B2C and C2C transactions increased 13 percent on-year to 38.49 trillion won in 2013, according to the report.