Cross-border e-commerce trade rose 80.6% year-on-year in China to CNY90.24 billion in 2017, Yu Guangzhou, Director of the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said at the First Global Cross-Border E-Commerce Conference, a two-day event jointly organized by GAC and the World Customs Organization (WCO). China’s cross-border e-commerce trade has grown at an average annual rate of over 50% in the past three years.

China shipped goods worth CNY33.65 billion to global markets in 2017 via cross-border e-commerce, up 41.3% year-on-year, while it imported CNY56.59 billion worth of products from overseas markets, up 116.4%. The Customs department cleared 660 million manifests for imports and exports through cross-border e-commerce activities last year. The conference is set to be held every two years to facilitate global Customs cooperation in the e-commerce trade. It brought together over 1,000 representatives from Customs authorities, other government agencies, e-commerce operators, international organizations, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, consumers and academia from various countries and regions.

Yi Xiaozhun, Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said that “China is already a leader in e-commerce in many ways, especially in online payment that enables consumers in big cities to pay with mobile phones. Everything from supermarket shopping to utilities and taxi fares can be paid via an e-wallet.”

JD, one of China’s leading online retailers, plans to challenge Amazon.com in Europe by establishing operations across the continent within the next few years, said Liu Qiangdong, Founder and Chief Executive of JD. The company will launch its first European e-commerce platform and delivery services in France, with plans to roll out to the United Kingdom and Germany. In the UK, JD will also open an artificial intelligence (AI) research center in Cambridge and offices in London. Liu confirmed the company plans to spend at least €1 billion in the next two years to build JD’s logistics network in France in a bid to challenge Amazon by 2019. Amazon said it has invested €15 billion in Europe since 2010. JD, which Bloomberg valued at USD68 billion in January, is also preparing to operate in the United States by the end of the year, starting off in Los Angeles.