"We could not have survived five years ago because of the lack of a mature online payments system and the limited information dissemination back then," he added.
According to the latest CNNIC report, about 128 million people have used online payment systems and 122 million have used online banking services.
But veteran Chinese Internet users still remember an Internet-based life experiment in 1999.
The experiment involved 12 volunteers spending 72 hours connected to the Internet and trying to get food and clothing online.
One of the volunteers with little knowledge about the Internet was forced to leave after starving for more than 26 hours. None of the volunteers were able to persuade people to accept their electronic currency as payment. They had to pay cash for everything.
One of them tried to pay with electronic currency at five or six websites but failed.
