SEOUL, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Online shopping in South Korea posted a double-digit growth in April as shopping using smartphones continued to grow, a government report showed Wednesday.
Shopping in the cyberspace amounted to 10.64 trillion won (9.02 billion U.S. dollars) in April, up 17.2 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
Excluding February, the online shopping topped 10 trillion won (about 8.5 billion U.S. dollars) for the past six months.
It came amid the spreading social trend of ordering food through food delivery apps using smartphones. Demand expanded for the purchase of air purifiers, caused by the fine dust pollution.
Food delivery services in the cyberspace surged 91.7 percent in the month, with the purchase of food and beverage jumping 29.2 percent.
Online purchase of electronics and telecommunications devices advanced 21.1 percent on demand for air purifiers.
The mobile shopping through smartphones picked up 23.8 percent over the year to 6.69 trillion won (5.67 billion U.S. dollars) in April.