China

There were 485,000,000 internet users in China (representing 36.3% of the population) in June 2011, according to Internet World Stats. This represented 36.3% of the Asian population. (Internet World Stats, August 2011)

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Internet users age 15 and older accessing the internet from a home or work location in Greater China (which includes Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong for this study) allocated the largest share of their time online to Portal sites in April 2011, according to comScore.

During the month, Portals accounted for 24.4% of time spent online in Greater China. Entertainment sites followed accounting for 9%, with Search/Navigation securing 6.2% of total minutes. Social Networking accounted for just 5.5% of total minutes, less than one-third of the category's percentage on a worldwide basis. The Retail category ranked fifth with 5.0% of time spent in Greater China.

Analysis of the most-visited sites across these categories showed Tencent, Inc. leading as the top Portal in Greater China reaching 64.4% of all internet users in the market. Online video provider Youku, Inc. led as the largest Entertainment site reaching 19.2% of online users, while Baidu.com Inc. ranked as the largest Search/Navigation property reaching 59.4% of web users.

Oak Pacific Interactive Sites, which includes Renren.com, led as the most-visited Social Networking destination in Greater China reaching 17.8% of unique visitors, while Alibaba.com Corporation held the #1 spot among Retail destinations reaching 36.5% of visitors. (comScore, June 2011)

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Internet users in China spend about 1 billion hours online each day, more than double the daily total in the US and that number will grow to well over 2 billion hours a day by 2015, according to a report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). This report, titled China's Digital Generations 2.0: Digital Media and Commerce Go Mainstream, offers a comprehensive study of online behavior in China based on quantitative data as well as interviews with nearly 2,000 people from 12 cities in 11 of China's 22 provinces.

The explosive growth of the digital market isn't due so much to demographics as to a behavioural shift: digital media and commerce have moved into the mainstream of Chinese internet users' lives. Specifically, these digital consumers are spending more time online to meet a more complex set of needs than ever before. For example, far more Chinese people use the internet to communicate and seek entertainment than in other emerging markets. More than 80% of Chinese digital consumers use instant messaging, read news online, and stream or download music and video content via the internet, and around half play games online. And Chinese consumers have "leapfrogged" over e-mail - only 53% of Chinese internet users actively use e-mail, less than in any other major market. The average time online for Chinese internet users increased from 2.4 hours per day in 2006 to 2.7 hours per day in 2009, compared with only 2.3 hours per day in the US.

The majority of China's digital consumption comes from those aged 35 and under, who make up 73% of China's total online population and account for more than 80% of China's online hours. Many of these users are sophisticated-well educated and with white-collar jobs. For instance, young professionals, who represent 6% of all Chinese internet users, have a remarkable 99% penetration. They are also the heaviest users, averaging four hours a day online. Yet while urban users may be the early adopters, growth is increasingly coming from China's vast rural areas. (Boston Consulting Group, May 2010)

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The number of internet users in China had touched 384 million by the end of 2009, more than the entire population of the US, according to China Internet Network Information Center, the country's official domain registry and research organization. That's an increase of around 50% over 2008. Moreover, 233 million Chinese (twice as many as in the previous year) accessed the net on handheld devices, partly because China's cellular providers started offering 3G services widely in 2009.

The Chinese are obsessed with the internet. People in the 60 largest cities in China spend around 70% of their leisure time on the internet, according to a survey conducted in 2009. In smaller towns, the corresponding number is 50%. The PC is fast replacing the TV set as an entertainment hub, and emotions run high over who gets to log on and for how long. (HOTELMARKETING.COM, March 2010)

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476 million people will use the internet in China by 2013, according to eMarketer. This would be up from 313 million in 2009.

Internet users in China 2008-2013:
- 2008: 265 million
- 2009: 313 million
- 2010: 359 million
- 2011: 406 million
- 2012: 447 million
- 2013: 476 million

(eMarketer, May 2009)

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 01 February 2012 15:55