ZTE Corp expects to get revenue of about 300 million yuan ($48 million) this year from selling mobile phones online, according to a company official.

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He Shiyou, executive vice-president of ZTE, said that the company started to use e-commerce channels to promote mobile phone sales in 2010. It achieved 10 million yuan in revenue from its online handset business last year, he said.

"The e-commerce websites are now effective, convenient channels for people buying mobile devices," He said at a Beijing forum on Wednesday.

He said that there has been an explosive growth in e-commerce mobile phone transactions, and that ZTE is paying close attention to the trend.

ZTE plans to increase the number of smartphones it will produce this year to 35 million. In the first six months of 2012, ZTE shipped more than 13 million of the devices.

But the company will likely ship the same number of mobile phones in 2012 as it did last year.

According to market research firm IDC, ZTE sold 66.1 million mobile phones in 2011, securing a 4.3 percent share of the global market that year.

The company is the world's fourth-largest mobile phone seller and fifth-largest telecom equipment maker.

shenjingting@chinadaily.com.cn