Chart of the Day: China’s Delivery Boom

The number of packages delivered in China last month rose 25.2% to 4.7 billion

China’s delivery services continued to notch steady growth last month. The industry’s monthly revenue in October rose 19.6% year-on-year to 53.4 billion yuan ($7.7 billion), according to a report published Tuesday by the State Post Bureau.

Graphic: Gao Baiyu/Caixin

In October, 4.7 billion packages were delivered in China, up 25.2% year-on-year, according to the report (link in Chinese). Through October this year, China’s army of couriers delivered 39.4 billion packages, an increase of 26.6% from the same period last year. The industry took in 478 billion yuan in revenue over the period.

The five cities with the highest volume of deliveries over the first 10 months of the year were Guangzhou, Shanghai, Yiwu, Shenzhen and Hangzhou, in that order. Yiwu is a city in Zhejiang province known for being home to one of the country’s largest wholesale markets.

Analysts expect delivery service revenue to spike this month thanks to e-commerce giant Alibaba’s annual “Double 11” online sales event, which takes place on Nov. 11. This year, Alibaba reported a record 213.5 billion yuan in gross merchandise value on that day, on which other retailers and e-commerce platforms also roll out their own sales events.

Contact reporter Charlotte Yang (yutingyang@caixin.com)