A resident walks through an overpass amid heavy smog and thick fog in Beijing, Dec. 25, 2015. (Photo: China News Service/Sheng Jiapeng)
Beijing residents bought more than one sixth of masks sold on Alibaba's online shopping platforms in 2014, a report by AliResearch and AliHealth said on Sunday.
Beijing, Jiangsu Province in eastern China and Shanghai were the top three regions in mask consumption. The northeastern province of Heilongjiang, which ranked the ninth, registered the largest year-on-year increase of 200 percent in 2014, according to the report.
Consumers from Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan, where air quality is relatively good, showed higher per capita consumption amounts.
Online consumption of health-related products and services reached 65 billion yuan (10 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014, an increase of 62.5 percent year on year, the report showed.
Number of online consumers also surged at the same time, from 68.2 million in 2013 to 101.1 million in 2014, an increase of 63.5 percent. Heavy users who spent over 5,000 yuan on health products also increased by 68.9 percent.
Senior analyst of AliResearch Xue Yan said wealth growth, aging population, urbanization and environmental change were the main drives behind the rapid growth of the online health market.
