Internet Usage in China

Internet Usage in China
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With internet access and usage in China growing at unprecedented rates, there are so many opportunities for internet marketers to make some serious money from this market.

China has become the number one user of the internet in the whole world - with 253 million internet users. The number of users has increased by a whopping 56% in the year to June 2008, with 43 million of these users coming online in just the December to June period.

But what is truly mind-boggling is that these numbers reflect a very low penetration rate of 19.1% - meaning that only this percentage of the country can access the world wide web. Imagine the numbers if China could reach the 71% penetration of Korea or the 68% of Japan. In order to do the math you need to realize that the current population of China is estimated at 1.325 BILLION people.

Realistically though, in a country as vast as China, it may be a very long time, if at all, before the whole population will have internet access, but certainly the major centers are well serviced.

Who is online?

Females account for just over 46% of users. The age group for internet users is young, in fact over 68% of Chinese internet users are under 30 years of age. Around 39% of these have education to high school only, a reflection of the educational makeup of the Chinese population. 30% of internet users are students and a little over 25% are business employees.

Online habits

The most common objectives of Chinese internet users are internet music, news, messaging and video, followed by search engines and email. Online games are accessed and played by 58.3% of users, while 25% purchase online. Contrary to a popular western perception, over 23% of Chinese 'netizens' use online banking and over 18% access the internet for learning purposes.

The last figure is especially significant for marketers of information products - this 18% equates to around 47 million Chinese people on a self-improvement quest! And this segment is growing.

Online gaming presents another opportunity for selling 'how to' products to this market.

E-commerce

Online shopping is beginning to blossom in China, and statistics from China Internet Network Information Center show that as at June 2008 over 63 million people in China shop online. This figure reflected an increase of almost 17 million in the preceding 6 months alone. The major concentrations of online shoppers are, not surprisingly, the big cities of Shanghai and Beijing.

This growth in online shopping has been put down to more reliable, functional, and secure payment and fulfillment systems.

Opportunities abound.

No internet marketer can afford to be without the solid and detailed information that the research-based Chinese eWhispers provides. No fluff, no hype - just the facts.

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