Business-to-business (B2B) transactions hit 1,250 billion yuan (168.9 billion U.S. dollars) in China last year, up 25.5 percent from 2006, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

The "Netguide 2008" survey, which provides a wrap-up of 2007, polled more than 300 web sites and about 200 enterprises, with 50,786 interviewees around the country.

The survey, conducted by the Data Center of the China Internet (DCCI), reported that the newly-listed Alibaba.com was first in the e-commerce marketplace and accounted for about 70 percent of market share.

Alibaba.com is one of China's fastest-growing Internet companies. Its registered members soared to 24.6 million in 2007 from 6 million in 2004. Paying members increased to 255,000 by June 2007 from 77,000 in 2004.

Alibaba.com, which reportedly has the world's biggest base of online suppliers, raised 1.5 billion U.S dollars in its initial public offering (IPO) last November -- the second-largest Internet offering in history after Google's IPO in 2004.

Other e-biz dotcoms on the top list are netsun.com, globalsources.com, cn.made-in-china.com and hc360.com, according to the survey.

The Netguide 2008 also forecasts that China's B2B trade volume will exceed 1,620 billion yuan (218.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008 and 2,130 billion yuan (287.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2009

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2008)