Transaction volume of China's online business-to-business (B2B) jumped 65.9 percent year on year to 2.1 trillion yuan (about 295.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007, according to a report released by iResearch Inc., a well-known consulting firm.

Revenues of online B2B operators hit 3.9 billion yuan in 2007, up 49.1 percent year on year, the consultant said and contributed the surge to the country's booming economy and trade.

Alibaba.com, the Hong Kong-listed online B2B giant, maintained its leading position and generated 2.3 billion yuan in revenues last year, an annual increase of 65.4 percent, said the consulting firm.

As more and more small- and medium-sized enterprises are using online B2B transactions to reduce cost, revenues drawn from online B2B operations will jump to 13.8 billion yuan in 2011, the company predicted.

China's online B2B transaction volume was merely 76 billion yuan in 2002, according to the company's data.

(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2008)