Mainland luxury Chinese consumers are becoming increasingly open to shopping for, and finding information about, luxury brands online with news portals.

Weibo is one of the most popular sources for information, according to the results of a survey released November 28 by PR group Ruder Finn Asia.

The survey was conducted among 1057 Mainland Chinese luxury shoppers by Ruder Finn Asia as part of its China Luxury Forecast.

The Swiss watch industry is in rude health with exports leaping once again last month and watchmakers set to notch up a record year thanks to Chinese consumers

Despite the the effect of the global debt crisis, the demand for Swiss watches hit a peak in October, putting smiles on the faces of the country’s 600 watchmakers.

Data from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) showed exports rose to 1.9 billion Swiss francs ($2.0 billion), up 18.6 percent on the same month last year.

India’s luxury sales are expected to expand by a scorching 20 percent annually until 2015, as brand-smitten consumers snap up big names to flaunt their wealth.

Luxury sales were slow to take off in India a decade ago, disappointing retailers who had rushed into what they hoped would be the next China — a vast market of over a billion people with an eye for status symbols.

But now Indian consumers “are quickly catching up with global trends”, according to Neelesh Hundekari, author of the recent “Indian Luxury Review” report.

The luxury sector is set to post double-digit growth this year to 191 billion euros driven by the appetite of Chinese consumers for top-quality goods, according to a study by Bain & Company released on Monday.

While “the global economic situation is difficult” the luxury sector “is in good health and is growing above all in Asian markets,” said Santo Versace, head of the Italian fashion house and the Altagamma Foundation of Italian luxury companies.

The growth forecast was revised up to 10 percent from 8 percent, but still falls short of the 13-percent growth the sector recorded last year.

Fashion bloggers will help propel online sales of designer clothes, jewels and luxury cars to more than 11 billion euros ($15 billion) in 2015.

The exclusive fashion world has embraced the Internet later than other industries but is catching up quickly.

Brands such as Burberry, Tiffany and Gucci are increasing exposure to social media to connect with a new generation born when mobiles and Internet were already there.

You don’t have to tell the people at Prada how valuable the Chinese market for luxury goods has become — the Italian fashion icon is so keen to set up a base out East that it is about to be listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

In fact, such has been the rush by the world’s luxury brands to get a foothold in China that there are, apparently, little to no spaces left for them in the malls of the country’s largest cities.

Bad news for the brands themselves — keen to get a slice of a market estimated to be now worth 84 billion yuan (nine billion euros) a year — but it is good news for China’s fast-growing number of online luxury-only shopping portals.