China's sharing economy sustains growth momentum

A staff member packs takeouts at a restaurant in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Jan. 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Yibo)

BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- China's sharing economy maintained steady growth last year despite multiple headwinds, according to a report released by the State Information Center.

Transactions within the country's sharing economy reached about 3.83 trillion yuan (555.54 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022, up 3.9 percent year on year, said the report.

The sharing economy -- a sector that includes companies facilitating ride sharing, bike sharing, home sharing and even the pooling of battery packs for phones -- has been mushrooming in recent years in the world's second largest economy.

However, the report pointed out that different segments of the sharing economy showed diverging performance last year. The market sizes of life services and shared medical services grew faster than a year ago, while those of office-space sharing, accommodation sharing and transportation sharing posted year-on-year declines.

Shared services and consumption continued to play a prominent role in stabilizing China's economic development, according to the report.

In 2022, online takeout services accounted for 25.4 percent of the total revenue of the country's dining industry, up 4 percentage points from a year earlier.

Online ride-hailing trips made up about 40.5 percent of the total taxi trips, an increase of 6.4 percentage points from a year earlier. Shared accommodation accounted for 4.4 percent of the country's total accommodation revenue.

Over 60 percent of Chinese netizens ordered takeouts online in 2022, while the proportion of those using car-hailing and accommodation-sharing services reached 38.54 percent and 6.63 percent, respectively.

Last year saw some emerging trends in the sharing economy, said the report. Some segments such as shared transportation and life services have been reshaped at a faster pace and competition has intensified. The market became more regulated, with strengthened law enforcement and the improvement of relevant rules and norms.

The report predicts that the policy environment for the sharing economy will continue to improve and that strengthening the oversight of platform firms on an ongoing basis will help stabilize market expectations and confidence.