eMarketer throws Spotlight on China, Japan and South Korea

While it is not particularly our role to plug other people's research reports, eMarketer's new report on Asia-Pacific E-Commerce: Spotlight on China, Japan and South Korea interests us.

It says, quite rightly: "The Asian e-commerce market is not a single market, but rather a collection of economies at markedly different stages of maturity. Japan is the most robust, although per capita online spending lags the US by a wide margin, suggesting that there is plenty of room for growth. But the market with the greatest potential for growth appears to be China."

Key take home point: despite all the hype, China is a tiny e-commerce market today with sales of $1.1 billion againgst Japan's $38.4 billion. It ties with Taiwan for third place after South Korea in second with $6.3 billion in sales. The report falls back on the cliche that it is the market of the future. It probably is, and Charles de Gaulle's comment on Brazil ("...and always will be") is probably not justified in this case. But, there is a long way to go before good profits are to be made in most sectors of e-commerce.