Art dealers in China have complained in the past that local consumers have been slow to purchase art for wall decorations as compared with Western buyers.
But with the growing use of the Internet in China, that market looks set to take off.
During the last two years, for instance, online art shops funded by auction houses, galleries, museums and even art magazines have mushroomed, taking their numbers to the hundreds.
Li Yijun, a 30-year-old oil painter, registered on several online art trading platforms to sell his paintings two years ago. Last year, he sold five paintings over Artpollo, a phone app for art trade, fetching him an average price of 10,000 yuan ($1,515) per square meter of his works.
Li says it is common now for many of his artist friends to sell online.
"It's a very convenient channel for young artists like me to find potential buyers. Without the Internet, I wouldn't have had the chance to show my works to such large groups of viewers," says Li.
The new way of showing and selling his paintings also influences the outcome of his paintings as he frequently talks to online viewers who follow him on social media.
Li says young artists tend to use the online shops.
Hao You, who founded the online art store Artpollo in April, says it has about 1,000 registered artists. About 47,000 people have downloaded the app on their phones.
While some other online art platforms allow one to sign in by just uploading personal artworks, Artpollo uses its app to invite art teachers and critics - mostly from China - to first rate the works of artists before putting them on sale.
"Art has no standards to measure. But we want to select good works for our online users first, so we gather scores from hundreds of judges and show the average score to consumers so as to help them make their purchase decisions," says Hao.
Prices of works sold on Artpollo range from 5,000 to 50,000 yuan, targeting young art lovers and other age groups that buy paintings and sculptures for their houses. The platform's total sales from artworks has already touched 40 million yuan, says Hao.
Her team of around 40 people brought in an investment of more than 21 million yuan last year from real estate giants like Wantong and furniture retailer Red Star Macalline. Their buyers have since overshot the initial target numbers given by the investors, with more young middle-class Chinese buying art for their homes.
Artpollo's research shows that most art buyers are from big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. About half of the clients make multiple purchases as well.
"Compared with other industries, the art market is still very traditional in China. But online art shops or trading platforms are enabling more Chinese to have access to art," she says.
Zhang Rui, a collector who has bought lots of museum-level artworks, says he has yet to start buying art online. But some of his friends have joined the trend.
"I want to see more aspects of the works I decide to buy. So, auction houses are my major channels of collection. But maybe, I will try buying online sometime," says Zhang.
Interest in art is rising in China, says collector Tang Ju, and it is a good time for online art shops and auction houses.
"Everyone else has bought art. I also want to have some now that I have a house," he quotes his driver as saying.
"The market is promising," says Tang.
