CNNIC: China's Internet User Base Reaches 338 Mln
CNNIC, 7/16/09
The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) has released its "24th Report on the State of the Chinese Internet" stating that as of the end of June, China had 338 mln Internet users, up 13.4% from the end of 2008, with a penetration rate of 25.5%. 175 mln Chinese Internet users are aged 25 or below, a 5% increase over the past six months, and accounting for 51.8% of all Internet users.
94.3% of Chinese Internet users, or 318.73 mln, access the Internet using broadband, up 3.7% since the end of 2008.
There were 11.05 mln new Internet users from rural areas in H1 2009, bringing total rural Internet users to 95.65 mln, a 13.1% increase.
China had 16.26 mln registered domain names, including 12.96 mln in the .CN top-level domain, representing a decline in both categories since the end of 2008.
The proportion of Internet users who used a mobile phone to access the Internet increased from 39.5% at the end of 2008 to 46% in June 2009, while the proportion who used a desktop computer to go online dropped from 89.4% to 78.3% in the same period. The proportion using a notebook also declined from 27.8% to 25.9%.
Regarding location from which Internet users accessed the Internet, 80.2% accessed from home, 35.5% from Internet cafes, 25.7% from work, 11.3% from school, 7.5% from dormitories, and 7% from other locations.
At the end of H1 2009, 235 mln Internet users used search engines, increasing the penetration rate by 1.4 percentage points to 69.4%.
The number of new instant messaging service users in H1 2009 was 20.04 mln, bringing the total to 244 mln, but the penetration rate dropped 3.1% to 72.2% of users.
The number of online gamers rose to 217 mln, an increase of 30 mln since the end of 2008, at a growth rate of nearly 16%, the lowest since 2007. The penetration rate of online gaming services rose 1.4% to 64.2% of all users, including an increase in the percentage of school-aged gamers from 69.7% to 73.8%. Online music users rose to 289 mln, an additional 39.99 mln, and a penetration rate of 85.5%. Online video users reached 222 mln, of which 20.40 mln were added since the end of 2008, bringing the penetration rate to 65.8%.
The number of users who shop online has grown from 74 mln to 87.88 mln, for an increase of nearly 14 mln users. The number of users who make online payments has reached 75.71 mln, an increase of 23.71 mln users.
By the end of June 2009, there were 155 mln mobile Internet users, accounting for 46% of all internet users, an increase of 6.5% within a half year. Currently 71.5% of mobile internet users use their phone's online chat features, chat ranking as the number-one most used feature. 26.2% of users used their phones for search, and 25.8% listened to music online or downloaded music to their phones.
According to the survey, among users who already use their phones to go online, 28% said they would use 3G phones to go online in the future, 32.4% said they would not consider using 3G phones to go online, while the remaining 39.6% were uncertain whether they would continue to use mobile phones to go online in the future. Among users who have not yet used a mobile phone to go online, 14.8% said they may do so in the next six months, and of those, 49% said they may use a 3G handset. Of the internet users who planned to use 3G phones in the future, 65.7% said online chat was the mobile application they would be most likely to use.
Chinese Internet users spend an average of 18 hours per week online.
Editor's Note: CNNIC internet users are defined as Chinese nationals older than 6 who have used the internet within the past 6 months.
Keywords: statistics 3G broadband CNNIC growth rate H1 2009 instant messaging Internet users mobile Internet notebook online gaming online music online video penetration rural handset desktop domain name broadband subscribers online search e-commerce
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