BEIJING - China has seen a growing number of direct selling companies in the past decade with their tax revenue hitting over 30 billion yuan ($4.7 billion), the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on Wednesday.

China now has 71 direct selling companies employing over 2.8 million people with products ranged from cosmetics to health care equipment, according to a MOC statement on its website.

In 2014 alone, these companies paid taxes of 5.7 billion yuan and their sales revenue reached 25.1 billion yuan.

The MOC said it will strengthen supervision to help consumption and increase employment.

China issued two regulations on direct selling in 2005 and announced ammendments in March 2014 to step up supervision of the business.