KUALA LUMPUR: Income from e-commerce transactions surged 30% year-on-year (y-o-y) in the first quarter (Q1) of 2021 to RM254.6bil from RM195.9bil in Q1 2020, according to the Statistics Department.

       In a statement, chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin (pic) said that in 2020, income from e-commerce rose 32.7% to RM896.4bil compared with 2019.

       The e-commerce income of establishments accelerated by 22.8% in 2019 to RM675.4bil as compared with 2017.

       For the reference year 2019, Uzir said the e-commerce income from the local market segment increased 21.7% to RM591.8bil, while the international market increased 31.9% to RM83.5bil.

       “E-commerce income by type of customers via business to business (B2B) rose 13% to RM449.6bil, followed by business to consumer (B2C) increased 53.3% to RM194.0bil.

       “Business to government (B2G), meanwhile, grew 55.7% to RM31.8bil, ” he said.

       According to the chief statistician, e-commerce expenditure recorded an increase of 14.8% to RM301.5bil.

       “The local market segment increased 15.3% to RM269.6bil, while the international market grew 10.8% to RM31.9bil.

       “Meanwhile, e-commerce expenditure by type of market via B2B rose 14.1% to RM277.6bil, B2C increased 24.6% to RM14.8bil, and B2G grew 22.6% to RM9.1bil, ” said Uzir.

       Subsequently, Internet usage also recorded an increase of 11.9 percentage points to 85.2%, followed by computers, 7.3 percentage points to 86.2%, and web presence notched a 16.1 percentage points increase to 53.9%.The information and communications, and financial and takaful/insurance sectors had fully utilised the usage of Internet and computers in the business. — Bernama.