Aug 31, 2021 20:00:00

With over 1 billion Chinese Internet users, how are Chinese using the Internet?

In August 2021, the China Internet Information Center (CNNIC) published a report summarizing trends in Internet usage in China. As a result, it was found that as of the end of June 2021, the number of Internet users in the country had exceeded 1 billion.

China welcomed its billionth netizen in the first half of 2021 • The Register
https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/30/china_billionth_netizen/

According to the ' (PDF file) 48th Statistics Report on Internet Development in China ' released by CNNIC, the number of Internet users in China increased by 21.75 million between the end of 2020 and the end of June 2021, resulting in June 31. As of the day, the total number of Internet users has reached 1,011 million.

With the increase in users, the Internet penetration rate in China has risen to 71.6%, which is higher than the world average. However, the Internet usage rate in rural areas increased by 3.3 points from December 2020 to only 59.2%, showing a difference from the central area.

Mobile terminals support the increasing use of the Internet in China. According to a survey, 99.6% of Internet users use the Internet on their mobile phones. Other than mobile phones, desktop PCs (34.4%), notebook PCs (30.8%), and tablet PCs (24.9%) were often used.

The mobile device market is also booming. Shipments of smartphones in the first half of 2021 increased 13.7% year-on-year to 174 million units, of which 128 million were equipped with 5G. In particular, shipments of 5G-equipped smartphones increased by 100.9% year-on-year, and 5G is spreading at a pace about twice that of 2020.

While the number of Internet users increased, the average Internet usage time of Chinese people decreased slightly from the peak of 30.8 hours in 2020 to 26.9 hours in June 2021. The Register, a British IT news site, analyzes that this difference may be due to the city blockade of new coronavirus infection countermeasures in 2020, which extended the usage time.

Looking at how to use the Internet, of the approximately 1 billion Internet users, 883 million use instant messaging, 888 million watch short movies, and 812 million online. I was shopping. In addition, about half of the users, 469 million, ordered food online, and 381 million used remote offices.


The Register pointed out that while smartphone shipments were strong, the top four most used apps were game apps, saying, 'Chinese politicians think games are a waste of time and are lazy. We may not be happy to let go of the increase in Internet users because we are concerned about creating citizens. '