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Chinese Netizen Eclipses 210 Million

My colleague Antony shared this with me and I wanted to be sure to draw attention to it because it is important. The number of netizen in China has reached 210 million, according to a report just released by CNNIC, the government-linked Chinese internet information organization.

The fast growing online population has made the Internet a new forum for average Chinese to, among other things, express opinions in a way rarely seen in Chinese traditional media. The report underscores the importance of considering online media in China as part of broader corporate marketing strategies.

The report is currently only available in Chinese on the popular Chinese portal Sina.com, but an English version is expected to be available later. This is a summary of the report:

• The CNNIC predicts that at the beginning of 2008, China will become the country with the largest online population in the world. China’s online population was only five million less than the
  US, which currently has the largest online population in the world. The US had almost 216 million internet users by the end of 2007, according to research firm Nielsen//NetRatings.
• The 210-million figure marked an increase of 53 percent (73 million) over 2006, fueled by rapid user growth in rural areas and a boom in wireless access. The number of rural Internet users reached 52.6 million by the end of 2007, up a whopping 127.7 percent from a year earlier. The number of Web users accessing through their mobile phones nearly tripled to 50 million. This means about one out of every 10 mobile users use their phone to surf the Net, despite the higher fees and lower speed of wireless access.
• It noted that China’s Internet penetration rate, the ratio of Web user numbers to the country’s total population, was only 16 percent, lower than the global average of 19.1 percent. The figure in the
  US is more than 70 percent.
• The most used online service is music, followed by instant messages, movies, news, search engines, online games and email.
• About 24 percent of Netizens had updated their own blogs within the past six months, while only a third of respondents believed what the bloggers write. News in the cyberspace, by comparison, enjoyed more credibility as 51 percent Netizens believed the reports to be true. The first step for 1/5 netizens online is to check online news.
• China’s online gaming population grew 23 per cent last year and is expected to exceed 84 million by 2012.
• Nearly 2/3 netizens have posted their articles/opinions on BBS/forums/blogs in the past one year.
• Chinese netizens spend 16.2 hours per week online.
• The number of internet users under age 18 and above 30 increased rapidly.
• Beijing boasted highest internet penetration ratio, which was 46.6 percent and slightly higher than the 45.8 percent in Shanghai.