China's sharing economy sees surging market transactions in 2017

BEIJING - China's sharing economy market reported surging transactions last year as more sectors started to offer shared services.

The sharing economy market transaction volume reached over 4.92 trillion yuan ($778 billion) last year, up 47.2 percent year on year, according to a report by the State Information Center and an industrial association.

About 70 million people were employed in 2017 to offer shared services, an increase of one million people compared with the previous year.

The booming sharing sector also drew growing investment, with financing volume rising 25.7 percent year on year to reach about 216 billion yuan.

The report expected China's sharing economy to grow over 30 percent annually in the next five years, with popular shared services likely to emerge in the agriculture, education, medical and old-age care sectors.