CNNIC: China IM Users Reach 277 Mln
CNNIC, 12/18/09
The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) has released its "2009 Chinese Instant Messaging (IM) User Research Report," in which it forecasts that by the end of 2009 China's IM users will have reached 277 mln, up 3.7% from last year. Of those, 33% or 91.41 mln, will be mobile IM users. To participate in the survey, users had to have used either online or mobile instant messaging at least once in the past 6 months.
Tencent's (0700.HK) QQ achieved 97.4% penetration among survey respondents, followed by China Mobile's (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) Fetion (20.5%), Baidu's (Nasdaq: BIDU) Baidu Hi (19.8%), and Alibaba's Alitalk (17.4%) IM platforms.
QQ was overwhelmingly users' first choice among software clients (90.7%), followed by Baidu Hi (3.8%), MSN Live (1.9%), and Fetion (1.3%).
32.7% of users expressed an interest in paying for premium IM services, while 6.7% were indifferent. Of those interested, 27% were willing to pay for security features, 20.2% for sending SMS and MMS, 19.2% for online data storage, 18% for VoiP calling, 17.3% for virtual avatars, and 12.9% for video calling.
IM user stickiness is relatively high, with nearly 60% of IM users logging into IM tools when online. 8% of IM users log in when necessary, while 33.2% reported having no fixed habit.
75.5% of users viewed account security as the most important consideration when using IM software, followed by software performance (61.6%) and the number of features and interface design (approximately 45%). Contact lists and value-added services were mentioned by 37.7% and 33.7% of users, respectively.
During the six month survey period, 36.6% of respondents used only one IM client, while 28.3% and 23.5% used two or three, respectively. 7.1% used four, while 4.5% used five.
50.2% of IM users logged into other services via instant messaging software.
Residential usage was most common, with 84.4% of respondents affirming they use IM at home. 38.1% said they used mobile IM, while 36.7% had used IM services in Internet cafes and 26.3% at the office. 15.8% reported using IM in school dormitories.
63.2% of users reported receiving IM spam, while over 40% reported having received links to malware-infected websites, documents or other illegal information, while 16.1% reported they had never received any messages containing spam or viruses.
Keywords: statistics Internet Baidu Baidu Hi Tencent instant messaging QQ Fetion mobile IM Alitalk Alibaba CNNIC MSN 0700.HK BIDU 1688.HK
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