Viya (left), one of China's top e-commerce livestreamers, and her assistants promote products via livestreaming platforms in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo by Chen Zhongqiu/For China Daily]

New forms of business such as livestreaming and e-commerce developed rapidly, unleashing greater consumption potential in the first half of this year, People's Daily reported on Tuesday.

Online retail sales of physical goods rose 18.7 percent year-on-year, up 4.4 percentage points from the same period last year.

As of the end of last year, the number of China's online livestreaming users had reached 617 million, among which 388 million were e-commerce livestreaming users.

It is projected the total sales brought by livestreaming will be close to 2 trillion yuan ($308.86 billion) this year in China.

Consumption upgrading accelerated in the first half of this year, and "small but beautiful" online brands have become popular among consumers.

In the first half of this year, China's total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 23 percent year-on-year, and the contribution of consumption to GDP growth rebounded to 61.7 percent.

Compared with 2019, China's total retail sales of consumer goods increased 9 percent in the first half of this year, up 8.5 percent in Q1 and 9.4 percent in Q2.

Consumption of automobiles and other major items grew rapidly in H1. The retail sales of automobiles reached 2.2 trillion yuan in this period, up 30.4 percent year-on-year, contributing 13 percent to total retail sales of consumer goods.

The recovery of cultural and tourism consumption accelerated in the same period. In H1, China's box office revenue recovered to nearly 90 percent of the same period of 2019, while the passenger volume of railway and civil aviation has recovered to nearly 80 percent.

Green, healthy and smart consumption has been booming. Statistics show sales of new energy vehicles accounted for 9.4 percent of vehicle sales, and 5G mobile phone shipments accounted for 73.4 percent of mobile phone shipments in H1.

China's overall consumption market is expected to continue to develop in a positive direction as consumer confidence rises gradually, said Zhu Xiaoliang, director-general of the department of market operation and consumption promotion at the Ministry of Commerce.

"As China's economy continues to recover steadily, the epidemic prevention and control becomes more accurate and effective, various policies and measures are effective and consumer confidence is gradually enhanced, the overall consumer market is expected to continue to develop in a positive direction."

The Ministry of Commerce will further stimulate market vitality and unleash consumption potential by firmly implementing a strategy of expanding domestic demand and measures to promote consumption in an all-round way, Zhu said.