That would mean more than 40 million consumers use PayPal to make purchases from Chinese companies.

Chinese e-retail sites have become popular destinations for global online shoppers, at least for those that use the PayPal online payment service. PayPal Holdings Inc. has released a report saying says that 25% its users outside of China made at least one purchase from a Chinese e-retailer in 2015.

There are 188 million consumers worldwide with PayPal accounts. PayPal did not immediately respond to a query about how many Chinese consumers use PayPal. But, given that hundreds of millions of Chinese web shoppers use domestic online payment systems like Alipay and Tenpay, it’s likely that PayPal’s customer base in China is relatively low. If all of PayPal’s 188 million registered users lived outside of China that would mean at least 47 million individuals used PayPal last year to buy from a Chinese e-commerce site.

PayPal says 30% of the orders placed with Chinese e-retailers were for electronics products and 20% for fashion items. Among the leading Chinese online retailers that accept PayPal is JD.com, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer 2016 China 500, which ranks retailers by their online sales in China, and LightInTheBox, No. 43.

The countries where shoppers are most likely to purchase from Chinese online sellers are Israel, Russia, Singapore, Nigeria, Australia, Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Ireland, Canada, Sweden and Argentina.

Here is the percentage of PayPal members in each country who purchased from a Chinese e-retailer in 2015, according to PayPal:

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  • Israel, 60%
  • Russia, 52%
  • Singapore, 37%
  • Nigeria, 36%
  • Australia, 32%

PayPal says it plans to open offices in 10 additional cities in China as it seeks to broaden its base of Chinese e-commerce sites accepting PayPal. PayPal, which spun off from eBay Inc., last year, already has offices in about 20 Chinese cities. 

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