Online Activity in China - Best Blogs Asia
Interesting information on what goes on inside China, it’s websites and it’s users.
Information based on my experiences and from the 2009 Internet Statistical published by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), pulls up some interesting facts.
China Facts
China has the most internet users in the world
By late June 2009, the number of Chinese Internet users had reached 338 million, increasing by 40 million within six months. Mobile Internet users had reached 155 million, up 32.1% within six months largely due to the penetration of mobile phones into the rural areas.
What people are accessing
CNNIC’s Report shows that the proportion of Chinese Internet users accessing the Internet for entertainment, information and networking purposes. Except for forum/BBS, the popularization rate of the three Internet applications in Internet users was all over 50%.
Search Engine Market Share
- Baidu – 62%
- Google China – 20%
- Others (including Yahoo!, MSN & Sina) – 18%
Important Websites in Chinese Search
- Baidu (search, media, entertainment, content, news, blogging CMS)
- Sina (blogging CMS, news, entertainment)
- Alibaba (business to business professional directory)
- Sohu (news, blogging, entertainment, connectivity, mobile services)
QQ and Instant Messaging
Instant Message usage is more popular than email and using search engines in China, where 77% of Chinese internet users have used instant messaging service in the last 6 months, with Tencent’s QQ program is the leading IM program with the highest market share.
Impact of the Great Firewall
There is an inhouse team reportedly 250,000 to 1 million “internet police” checking the internet for any content deemed politically unstable to China’s well being. There are many sites which continue to be blocked – Twitter, Facebook, Blogspot to name a few.
Online spend in China
The number of users shopping online rose to 87.88 million, while the use of online payments increased by 4.8%. Spending power is low as the average Chinese online consumer is relatively low with 74% making less than 3000 yuan a month.
E-commerce is virtually non-existant, due to both the extremely low rate of credit card ownership. Paypal is available to China as well as Alibaba’s payment system, but is underused.