Translation of The 23rd CNNIC Report - Statistical Survey Report on Internet Development in China

This is a translated version of the official report published in January 2009 by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).  It includes the full text except for the appendices and graphs.

The CNNIC report is published twice a year and is the most authoritative report on internet usage in China.  The official report can be downloaded from this link to CCNIC's website.  It is written in really choppy English but it has all the graphs.

Please contact us with your questions and input.

Report Summary

 
Translator's Notes
t1 – Most “friend-finding websites” are dating websites.

Survey Introduction - Background

For both the government and businesses, it is of the utmost importance to have information on the number and demographics of Chinese netizens, fundamental resources of the internet, conditions for accessing the internet and the use of internet applications.  In 1997, after research was carried out by the relevant departments, it was decided that the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) would join up with internet organizations to collect statistics. In order to formalize and institutionalize their work, CNNIC has published the “Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China” every January and July since 1998. After the report was published, it received widespread recognition and was used widely both in China and out. This is the 23rd survey.

This work has received strong support from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other relevant national departments.  We wholeheartedly support the internet organizations, survey-supporting websites and media organizations that gave their support and co-operation for CNNIC’s survey work, helping to guarantee the smooth implementation of the survey.

Survey Introduction - Glossary

Netizen 
Any Chinese citizen aged 6 and above who has used the Internet in the past six months.
 
Broadband Netizen
Any netizen that has connected to the internet via broadband within the past six months. Broadband includes: xDSL, cable modem, fibre optic connections, power line connections, Ethernet, etc.
 
Mobile Netizen
Any netizen that has accessed the internet via mobile phone within the past six months. This is not limited to those that have only used mobile phones to connect to the internet.
 
Rural Netizen
Any netizen that primarily resides in a rural area that has accessed the internet within the past six months.
 
Urban Netizen
Any netizen that primarily resides in an urban area that has accessed the internet within the past six months.
 
IP Address
IP addresses, a fundamental internet resource, are used to identify computers, servers and other internet equipment that access the internet. Only by obtaining an IP address (regardless of the type) can one connect to the internet.
 
Domain Name
A string that consists of numbers, letters and hyphens (-) and is separated with dots (.). It designates a website by corresponding to an IP address. This report only refers to English-language domain names. The common domain names are separated into two categories: the first is national or regional domain names (ccTLD), such as the .cn TLD which represents China; the other is categorized as global domain names (gTLD), such as the .com, .net and .org TLDs.
 
Website
Refers to any website that uses a domain name itself or “www. + domain name” as a URL, including websites that use .cn and other types of global domain names (gTLD). The registrants of these domain names reside in China. For example: the domain name cnnic.cn is only one website with the corresponding addresses of cnnic.cn and www.cnnic.cn. Except for these, whois.cnnic.cn, mail.cnnic.cn and other sub domains are only regarded as separate channels of this website.
 
Static Webpage
Any webpage that does not contain “?” and input parameters. This includes: *.htm, *.html, *.shtml, *.txt, *.xml, etc.
 
Dynamic Webpage
Any webpage that includes “?” or input parameters. This includes ASP, PHP, PERL, CGI and other server-side-processed webpages.
 
Webpage update period
The difference between the time the page was last updated and the time the page was searched.
 
Survey Coverage
Except where otherwise specified, the data in this report does not include Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
 
Closing Date of the Survey
The closing date for this statistical survey was December 31, 2008.

Survey Introduction - Methodology

 (1) Telephone Surveys

3.1 Survey Content

Respondents were asked if they have used the internet, their background information: gender, age, level of education, profession, if they live in an urban or rural area, their income level, etc; netizen internet habits, intensity of internet usaget1, internet experiences, etc.
 

3.2 Number of Responses

The survey had 66,000 responses in total including 33,000 responses from fixed-line telephone users and 33,000 responses from mobile phone users. The responses cover continental China – 31 districts in total, which includes provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under government control.t2
 

3.3 Survey Methodology

Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI).
 

3.4 Survey Groups

The survey was divided as follows：
Sub-group A：residents with fixed line phones (includes: residents with fixed line phones + Xiaolingtong (PHS) userst3 + students with dormitory phones + other users of dormitory phones). “A” is used to represent surveys taken from Sub-group A.
 
Sub-group B：mobile phone users. “B” is used to represent surveys taken from Sub-group B.
 
Sub-group C：those people with both fixed line phones and mobile phones (this group is for those that are in both Sub-group A and Sub-group B). C=A∩B. “C” is used to represent surveys taken from Sub-group C.
 

3.5 Discrepancy between the Surveyed Group and Target Group – The Group That Cannot be reached by Phone Survey

CNNIC previously researched this group in 2005. The number of netizens in this group is very small, therefore this research survey used a hypothesis, namely: for the purposes of this research project, netizens that could not be reached via phone can be overlooked in the statistics.
 

(2) Online Survey

The online survey was made mainly to help us understand typical internet application usage. CNNIC carried out the online survey from December 9 to December 31, 2008. The survey was placed on CNNIC’s website and links to this survey were placed on government media websites, the larger national ICP/ISP websites and each provincial information portal. Netizens took the initiative to fill in the survey. After receiving the completed surveys, technical methods were used to check the validity of the surveys and screen out the invalid surveys. The online survey received strong support from each big website and warm participation from many netizens. This online survey received 81,488 completed surveys. After removing invalid surveys, there were 72,152 completed surveys.
 

(3) Automatic Online Search and Statistics Reporting

Automatic search is mainly performed to obtain technical statistics such as domain and website numbers as well as the corresponding regional distribution. Also, these statistical reports mainly include data on the number of IP addresses and international outlet bandwidths. 
 

1．Total Number of IP Addresses

 
The provincial IP address statistics came from the IP address databases of the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) and CNNIC. To obtain the number of IP addresses per province, data on which province registered and resolvable IPs belong to was combined from both of the two databases. Since address allocation is dynamic, all stats were used only as reference. Also, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also requires that China’s IP allocating organizations (such as China Telecom) report the number of IPs they own twice a year. In order to ensure that the number is accurate, CNNIC will compare the reported numbers to the stats provided by APNIC. This allows for verification and confirmation of the final number of IP addresses.
 

2．Total Number of Chinese Domain Names and Websites

 
The total number of Chinese domain names and total number of Chinese websites were summarized based on the two data sources below:
the first is the number of .cn domains and websites under .cn domains.  This information was obtained by CNNIC through automatic search; the second are Chinese-type global top-level domains (gTLDs) and websites under those domains, which were provided by various domain registration units within China. This data includes: all types of global top-level domains (gTLDs) and websites that have already been setup on those domains; domains and websites divided according to .com, .net and .org; domains and websites divided according to province of registration.
 

3．Number of Webpages

 
Websites were automatically searched starting at the homepage (www + domain name). Additional pages were searched layer by layer by following links to capture all the content and characteristics of webpages on each website. To obtain the total number of Chinese webpages and total byte count, the number of webpages and their byte counts found by web search were combined. This total does not include webpages with duplicate content.
 

4．International Outlet Bandwidth

 
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology regularly receives data on international outlet bandwidth from Chinese operators. The “Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China” draws on the data from these reports.
 
 
Translator’s Notes
 

 

Netizens: Number and Demographics

1) Number of Netizens

(One) Overall Number of Netizens

As of the end of 2008, the number of Chinese netizens reached 298 million which is 41.9% higher than 2007. The internet penetration rate reached 22.6% which is higher than the world average of 21.9%1. Since the total number of Chinese netizens surpassed USA’s in June of 2008, making China No.1 in the world, China’s internet penetration rate leaped forward again to meet and pass the world average.
 
The rapid increase in the number of Chinese netizens is closely related to the following factors:
 
Number One) The rapid economic development of my country provides a basis for the rapid expansion of the number of netizens. China has gone through 30 years of reform and opening up.   With a GDP that increased 9.8% this year, China has accumulated considerable strength. Following the increase of overall world income, people will spend more and more time to satisfy their demand for information. At the same time, a good economic environment has created the right conditions for development and innovation in the internet industry. This has prompted mergers within the industry and the advancement of business models, finally resulting in more people becoming netizens and better service for these netizens.
 
Number Two) In order to guarantee the healthy development of information in my country, the country established and published the “National Information Development Strategy for 2006-2020,” “The Eleventh Five-Year Plan for Informationizingt1 Citizen Economic and Societal Development” and other policies. Informationization is currently becoming an important tool in promoting scientific development. Rural IT infrastructure construction has become important and is also gradually becoming an important part of the construction of basic facilities for farms and villages. In order to make information technology benefit the 100 million rural netizens and make sure that the national goal of having “phone and internet for every village” is basically realized by 2010, the relevant government departments and telecommunications operators are working hard to bring phone access to every “natural village” and bring broadband internet to every “administrative village.” Urbanization has created the conditions for even more people to connect to the internet. Urbanization includes two sides: one is the urbanization of villages; the other is the aggregation of cities and villages into clusters. The former directly brings advancement in physical hardware for production and life. The latter further shrinks the divide between cities and villages.
 
Number Three) Communications and network technology have been developing together with broadband and mobile phones. Step by step, data communications are replacing voice communications to become the mainstream of the communications industry. Along with technological developments in the industry and increasing competition between network operators, network access software and hardware is continuously improving. The price of network access products and user terminal products is continuously dropping causing the threshold for users to access the internet to continuously lower. 
 
Number Four) The internet is highly sticky and highly diffusible. According to CNNIC’s investigation, once users come in contact with the internet, the loss rate is very low. Also, online games, instant messaging, blogs, forums, friend-finding applications and other applications are highly interactive. This results in further diffusion of these applications. This diffusion is not only directed at netizens but also those that have not yet used the internet, resulting in the expansion of the number of netizens.
 
Number Five) The increase in the number of netizens raises the value of the internet and this increase in value further increases the number of netizens. According to Metcalfe’s Law, the value of the network is proportional to the square of the number of netizens. In parallel with the rapid increase in the number of netizens, the value of the network continuously inflates. Conversely, those that aim to profit from the internet and user-created content further strengthen the internet’s expandability and attractive power.
 
Although the number of Chinese netizens and the penetration rate continue to develop rapidly, since China has such a large population, the internet penetration rate is only 87th place in the world.
 

(Two) Number of Broadband Netizens

 
The investigation showed that in the 2nd half of 2008, 90.6% of Chinese netizens had used a broadband internet connection. That is, 270 million Chinese netizens used broadband to access the internet, which is over 100 million more than in 2007.
 
Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed that as of the third quarter of 2008 the number of 2M toll circuits in my country reached 8,935,811, which is almost twice (194%) the number of 2M toll circuits at the end of 2007.  The length of fibre optic cable across the nation reached 6,395,000 kilometres which is 618 thousand kilometres longer than at the end of 2007. The number of broadband access ports reached 103,721,000 including 86,727,000 xDSL ports, which is 22% more than at the end of 2007. The communications ability of my country’s telecommunications network improved rapidly, driving my country’s broadband internet development. The rapid popularization of broadband pushed forward the development of each internet application but my country’s broadband access speed still lags behind that of developed countries.
 

(Three）The Number of Netizens That Go Online via Mobile Phone

 
As of the end of 2008, the number of netizens that accessed the internet via mobile phone reached 117.6 million, which is over twice the number from 2007.
 
The main factors that caused the rapid increase in the number of mobile netizens are as follows:
 
Number one – The significance placed on mobile internet business by operators. Operators at the heart of the business chain have strengthened the management of the mobile internet and gradually lowered the mobile internet access fees for users.
 
Number two – Users of the most popular mobile service, Shenzhouxing, have become the largest group of mobile netizens. As the base of mobile netizens gets larger, the mutual effects between users become more prominent, driving even more users to access the internet via their mobile devices.
 
Number three – Counterfeit phones (usually called “bandit phones”t2) developed rapidly in 2008. These phones provide the basic hardware that allows users to cheaply access the internet via a mobile phone. Along with the arrival of the 3G era, the mobile internet will develop even faster in 2009.
 

(Four) The Number of Rural Netizens

 
As of the end of 2008, the number of rural Chinese netizens reached 84.6 million which is 31.9 million more and 60% higher than in 2007.
 
The rapid increase in the number of rural netizens was boosted by the following factors:
 

(Five) Number of Netizens by Province

 
Chart 1   Number of netizens and penetration rates by province for the years 2007 and 2008
 
  2007 2008 Growth Rate
  Number of Netizens (millions) Penetration Rate Number of Netizens (millions) Penetration Rate
All of China  210  15.9%  298 22.6% 41.9%
Beijing  7.37  46.6%  9.80  60.0%  32.9%
Tianjin  2.87  26.7%  4.85  43.5%  69.1%
Hebei  7.62  11.1% 13.34  19.2%  75.0%
Shanxi  5.36  15.9%  8.19  24.1%  52.8%
Inner Mongolia  3.22  13.4%  3.85  16.0%  19.7%
Liaoning  7.83  18.3%  11.38  26.5%  45.3%
Jilin  4.34  15.9%  5.20  19.0%  19.8%
Heilongjiang  4.76  12.5%  6.20  16.2%  30.2%
Shanghai  8.30  45.8%  11.10  59.7%  33.7%
Jiangsu  17.57  23.3%  20.84  27.3%  18.6%
Zhejiang  15.09  30.3%  21.08  41.7%  39.7%
Anhui  5.87  9.6%  7.23  11.8%  23.1%
Fujian  8.66  24.3%  13.79  38.5%  59.3%
Jiangxi  5.11  11.8%  6.10  14.0%  19.5%
Shandong  12.56  13.5%  19.83  21.2%  57.9%
Henan  9.56  10.2%  12.83  13.7%  34.2%
Hubei  7.06  12.4%  10.50  18.4%  48.7%
Hunan  6.90  10.9%  9.99  15.7%  44.7%
Guangdong  33.44  35.9%  45.54  48.2%  36.2%
Guangxi  5.60  11.9%  7.34  15.4%  31.1%
Hainan  1.44  17.2%  2.16  25.6%  49.9%
Chongqing  3.56  12.7%  5.98  21.2%  67.9%
Sichuan  8.09  9.9%  11.03  13.6%  36.4%
Guizhou  2.24  6.0%  4.33  11.5%  93.4%
Yunnan  3.03  6.8%  5.48  12.1%  81.0%
Tibet  0.36  12.7%  0.47  16.4%  29.5%
Shaanxi  5.17  13.9%  7.90  21.1%  52.8%
Gansu  2.19  8.4%  3.27  12.5% 49.5%
Qinghai  0.60  11.0%  1.30  23.6%  117.4%
Ningxia  0.61  10.1%  1.02  16.6%  66.4%
Xinjiang  3.63  17.7%  6.25  27.1%  72.1%
 
 
The number of netizens in the Western district increased the fastest. Of the provinces with a growth rate of over 60%, 6 of them are in the Western district. The 3 provinces with the highest growth rate are also in the Western district.
 

2) Netizen Demographics

(One) Gender

 
“China Statistical Yearbook 2008” shows that at the end of 2007, China’s proportion of males to females was 51.5:48.5. Compared to 2007, the gender demographics of Chinese netizens further improved. The gender proportion of Chinese netizens approached that of the general population.
 
Although the overall gender distribution of netizens is relatively close, the difference in the gender distribution between urban areas and rural areas is still large. The proportion of male to female netizens in urban areas is essentially equal. However, in rural areas, there are about 15% more males than females.
 

(Two) Age

 
Compared to 2007, the proportion of netizens aged 10 to 19 increased, making this the largest user group by age in 2008. The growth of this group is mainly attributable to two factors. First, the education department started the “Network for Every School” project in 2000 with the plan of allowing 90% of the country’s independently organized schools to access the internet within 5 to 10 years to let the teachers and students share online educational resources. Currently, this program is reaching its end. Second, online entertainment has increased the penetration rate for youth. Online games, online video, online music and other services have all pushed forward the popularity of the internet in this age group. In 2008, the number of netizens aged 40 and over was slightly greater than in 2007. In the past year, the proportion of middle-aged and elder netizens continuously increased. The rate of increase of these netizens already passed the average rate of increase of netizens, showing a trend towards continuous improvements of my country’s netizen age demographics.

 

(Three) Education

 
Compared to 2007, the proportiont3 of netizens with a college education further decreased while the proportion of netizens with a high school or junior-high school education continued to increase. The internet is becoming more and more popular with less-educated people.
 
Of netizens that are not students, the proportion of netizens that have a junior-high education or less is clearly lower than that of the general netizen population. Also the proportion of non-student netizens with a high school education or higher is clearly higher than that of the general netizen population. In this group, the increase of the penetration rate of less highly educated netizens is clearly lower than that of the student group.
 

(Four) Profession

 
The largest group is students. On one hand, the large number of students greatly invigorates internet usage in China. On the other hand, it reduces the business value of the internet in China.
 
Besides students, party and government organization workers, managers of independent businesses, employees, professional technical staff members and other white collar workers make up a large proportion. Also, rural citizens, who make up the majority of China’s total population, and factory workers still do not make up a large proportion of netizens. Compared to 2007, the proportion of unemployed netizens fell from 11.9% to 5.5%.
 
 
 
1 Source：http://www.internetworldstats.com；Data on the internet penetration rates of other countries and regions.
 
Translator’s Notes
 

 

Fundamental Resources of the Internet

One) Summary of Fundamental Resources

In 2008, the fundamental resources of China’s internet continued to grow rapidly. Except for IPv4, resources are growing at the same speed that the number of netizens is growing or faster.
 
The growth rate of IPv4 addresses has already trailed behind the growth of netizens for two years. The average number of IPv4 addresses per person continues to decline. As a required resource for internet access, if the number of IPv4 addresses cannot be increased at a faster rate or the transition to IPv6 cannot be made, this may become a bottleneck for internet development in China.
 
Chart 2 Comparison of China’s Fundamental Internet Resources in 2007 and 2008
 
 
2007
 
2008
 
Growth
 
Growth Rate
 
IPv4
 
135,274,752
 
181,273,344
 
45,998,592
 
34.0%
 
Domains
 
11,931,277
 
16,826,198
 
4,894,921
 
41.0%
 
.cn Domains
 
9,001,993
 
13,572,326
 
4,570,333
 
50.8%
 
Websites
 
1,503,800
 
2,878,000
 
1,374,200
 
91.4%
 
    .cn Websites
 
1,006,000
 
2,216,400
 
1,210,400
 
120.3%
 
International Outlet
Bandwidth (Mbps)
 
368,927
 
640,286.67
 
271,359.67
 
73.6%

Two) IP Addresses

There are two types of IP addresses: IPv4 and IPv6. Currently, IPv4 is the mainstream.   However, along with a greater and greater lack of IPv4 addresses, the transition to IPv6 has already started.
 
Although IPv4 resources are tight, due to the rapid development of the internet in my country, with the hard work of each IP address allocation organization, the IP address resources of my country have still maintained a fast growth rate. In 2008, there were 181,273,344 IP addresses which is 34% more than the year before. Although the growth rate of IPv4 addresses is maintaining rapid growth, it still cannot overtake the growth rate of netizens in my country. When servers, routers and other internet equipment that take up IP addresses are added to the equation, the lack of IP addresses in my country is extremely severe.
 

Three) Domains

As of the end of 2008, the total number of domains in China reached 16,826,198 which is 41% greater than in 2007.
 
Of the increase in domains in China, most are under the .cn TLD. In 2001 domains under the .cn TLD only accounted for 16% of total domains. After a few years of development, in 2006 the .cn market already reached 43.9% but still lagged behind the number of domains under the .com TLD (which took up 47.2% of China’s domain market at that time). In 2007, China’s national registrar of .cn domain names launched the “National Domain Soar Away Plan.” In one stroke, this helped the number of .cn domain names pass the .com domain names and take up the head position of China’s domain market. At the end of 2008, .cn domains names took up 80.7% of the domain market.
Chart 3 Number of Domains by TLD
 
Number
Proportion
cn
13,572,326
80.66%
com
2,739,130
16.28%
net
419,220
2.49%
org
93,913
0.56%
Other
1,609
0.01%
Total
16,826,198
100.0%
 
 
Chart 4 Number of Domains by .cn TLD
 
Number
Proportion
.cn
8,878,139
65.41%
.com.cn
3,629,375
26.74%
.net.cn
505,333
3.72%
.org.cn
218,703
1.61%
.adm.cn
278,336
2.05%
.gov.cn
45,555
0.34%
.ac.cn
13,438
0.10%
.mil.cn
6
0.00%
edu.cn
3,441
0.03%
Total
13,572,326
100.0%
 
Of the domains ending in .cn, the second most popular is .com.cn. In comparison with last year, second level domains ending in .cn increased by 200% but the proportion of .com.cn domain names dropped slightly.
 

Four) Websites

As of the end of 2008, the number of Chinese websites (the number of websites on domains registered by people in China) reached 2.878 million. That is 91.4% higher than in 2007 and the biggest yearly increase since 2000.   One year after the large increase in the number of domain registrations in China in 2007, the positive effect that the increase in domain names has for websites has started to show.
 
The chart below shows the number of websites under each type of TLD. The .cn TLD is clearly in the lead with a 10% increase over 2007. The .com TLD showed a decrease of 9.2% since 2007.
 
 
Chart 5 Number of Websites Under Each Type of Domain
 
 
Number of Websites
 
Proportion
 
cn
 
2,216,437
 
77.0%
 
com
 
552,898
 
19.2%
 
net
 
87,713
 
3.0%
 
org
 
21,005
 
0.7%
 
合计　
 
2,878,053
 
100.0%
 
Note: This data does not include websites under edu.cn domains.
 
Five) Webpages
 
Webpages are the direct holders of internet content. To a certain extent, the number of webpages reflects the abundance of content on the internet. Since 2002, the number of Chinese webpages has maintained a high rate of growth.
 
As of 2008, the number of Chinese webpages exceeded 16 billion, which is 90% higher than in 2007. The growth rate of webpages and the growth rate of websites is basically the same.
 
 
Chart 6 Number of Chinese Websites
 
Total Number
of Webpages
 
Number
 
16,086,370,233
 
Static
Webpages
 
Number
 
7,891,388,272
 
Percent of Total
 
49.06%
 
Dynamic
Webpages
 
Number
 
8,194,981,961
 
Percent of Total
 
50.94%
 
Static/Dynamic
Webpage Ratio
 
 
 
0.96:1
 
Webpage Size
(Total Byte-count)
 
KB
 
460,217,386,099
 
Average Number of
Webpages per Website
 
Number
 
5,588
 
Average Byte-count
per Webpage
 
KB
 
28.6
 

Six) International Outlet Bandwidth

China’s international outlet bandwidth reached 640,286.67 Mbps in 2008 which is 63.6% higher than in 2007. This is a higher growth rate than the growth rate of the number of netizens. The speed at which Chinese netizens can access international websites has increased and their usage experience has further improved.
 
Chart 7 International Outlet Bandwidth of Main Backbone Networks
Backbone Network Name
International Outlet
Bandwidth (Mbps)
CHINANET
337,564.17
CHINA169
243,956.5
CSTNET
10,010
CERNET
9,932
CMNET
29,860
UNINET
4,319
CRNET
4,643
CIETNET
2
Total
640,286.67

Internet Access Conditions

1) Time Spent Online

The amount of time netizens spend online is closely related to how long they have been using the internet: the longer they have been using the internet, the longer they spend online. The amount of time users spend online is clearly related to their usage of online applications. Generally speaking, the longer a netizen spends online, the greater the variety of applications they use and the higher the level of maturity of their internet usage behaviour. In turn, as the number of applications used increases, the level of maturity of internet usage behaviour rises and this is shown in the continuous increase in the amount of time they spend online. We will further analyze this in the internet usage section.
 
The average duration of time netizens spent online rose slightly in 2008. However, since new netizens spend slightly less time online, the rise in the average time spent online was limited. When considering the great number of total netizens, the total amount of time spent online was much higher than in 2007. From this we can see, as an advertising platform, the value of the internet is still sharply rising.
 
More and more, the internet is coming in touch with peoples’ daily lives multiple times each day. The value of the internet for mainstream advertising is becoming clearer and clearer. Since online advertising is highly targetable, has a high audience value and has traceable results, maybe in the future the problem of “having half your advertising budget wasted” will be solved.
 

2) Places of Internet Access

The home and internet café are the two main places from which the internet is accessed. However, the place of access is clearly different for people in different positions. Physical labourers and laid-off workers use internet cafés more.   

3) Internet Equipment

Desktop computers are the main equipment netizens use to access the internet. Also, the use of mobile phones is quickly rising. Along with the development of 3G in China, it is predicted that the use of mobile phones to access the internet will become more widespread over the next few years.

Differences in career/position strongly affect the equipment used to access the internet. Correspondence analysis and cross tabulation show: managers are more likely to access the internet with a laptop, office workers mainly use desktop computers and students have a strong inclination towards using mobile phones to access the internet.
 
Mobile phones are the most convenient way for students to access the internet. Brands that have the most student customers, such as “M-zone” and “UP Xinshili,” add online access fees to packages. Furthermore, applications widely used by students, such as instant messaging, image/ringtone downloading and mobile novels can all be conveniently accessed with a mobile phone. These are all extremely useful in promoting the use of mobile phones to access the internet among students.
 
Chart 8 Comparison of Equipment Used to Access the Internet for Netizens of Different Positions
 
Desktop
Computer
Laptop
Mobile
Phone
PDA
Students
89.3%
28.6%
43.5%
1.6%
Management
90.0%
43.0%
35.9%
2.6%
Office Workers
90.5%
28.1%
37.5%
1.4%
Physical Labourers
87.2%
20.6%
40.8%
0.7%
Retirees
85.1%
16.0%
9.3%
1.3%
Unemployed
88.1%
21.1%
38.3%
0.3%
 
It needs to be noted: physical labourers also access the internet via mobile phones a lot. This is closely related to the widespread usage of mobile phones. Another factor is that computers are relatively expensive and are not needed by physical labourers. Therefore their demand to occasionally access the internet can be satisfied by mobile phones. Demands that cannot be satisfied with a mobile phone can be satisfied by internet cafés. This group’s demand for accessing the internet is fairly simple. They mainly chat and play chess and card games. This can be done on a mobile phone.
 

4) Connection Method

The proportion of netizens that access the internet via a broadband connection is already over 90%. Accessing the internet through a broadband connection has already become the general trend.
 
42.4% of netizens have used a low-bandwidth connection. The low-bandwidth connections here are already different from the dial-up methods used in the early ages of the internet. Also, most of these connections are mobile internet wireless connections.
 
Since both broadband and low-bandwidth connections may be used by the same users, users that only use low-bandwidth connections only account for 9.4% of total netizens, and users that use both account for 33% of total netizens.

 

Internet Applications - 1:Basic Usage of Internet Applications

We can roughly separate internet applications into the following types: online media, online information search, online communications, online communities, online entertainment, e-business, online finance and other applications.

Overall, the proportion of users that use search engines, instant messaging, online music, online video and other mainstream online applications has fallen. This is mainly related to the rapid increase in the number of netizens. New netizens gradually enter the online world through the use of one application or just a few applications. Not many of them use other online applications and the applications they do use are not all the same. If experienced internet users do not begin to use other applications faster than new users come online, the overall internet application usage rate drops.
 

(One) Online Media

At 78.5%, the usage rate of online media is almost 5% greater than it was in 2007. The number of users of online media increased by 79 million, reaching 234 million.
 
Chart 9   Comparison of Users of Online News in 2007 and 2008
 
2007
2008
Change
 
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Increase
(Millions)
Rate of
Increase
Online News
73.6%
155
78.5%
234
79
51.0%
 
Interactivity is one of the most important characteristics of online news. Online news has allowed traditional one-way broadcasting to give way to two-way or multi-way communication. Online news has resulted in the combination of several types of media. This means it is even more expressive and infective.
 
Major events, such as the reporting of the Olympics, have brought online media into the ranks of mainstream media.
 

(Two) Information Search

Search engines are basic applications that allow users to acquire the information they demand online. Currently, 68% of netizens use search engines, which is the fourth highest usage rate of all internet applications. In 2008, the total number of search engine users in the country increased by 51 million, which is a 33.6% increase over last year. Due to the rapid increase in the total number of internet users, the proportion of less-educated netizens increased. The rate that these netizens use search engines is relatively low, resulting in an overall decrease in the usage rate for search engines.
 
Chart 10   Comparison of Users of Information Search-type Applications in 2007 and 2008
 
2007
2008
Change
 
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Increase
(Millions)
Rate of
Increase
Search Engines
72.4%
152
68.0%
203
51
33.6%
Online Job Search
10.4%
22
18.6%
55
33
150.0%
 
The usage of search engines shows wide variation in relation to the age, education and income of users as well as whether the users live in urban or rural areas. The search engine usage rate for urban netizens is clearly higher than that of rural netizens. Netizens aged 20-40 use search engines more than netizens of other age groups. Search engine usage rates are higher for those netizens with higher education levels. Also, search engine usage rates increase with income. The characteristics of the users of search engines have resulted in search engines being one of the internet industry’s applications with a higher business value.
 

(Three) Online Communications

1. Email

In 2008 the email usage rate was 56.8%, which is the same as 2007. The research shows that email usage increases with education. Users that work in administrative jobs and managerial jobs as well as students clearly use email more than users of other professions. Along with the further popularity of the internet, the average education of netizens will continue to slide towards the low side. Furthermore, due to the rising popularity of the internet in offices, more and more employees are using email. Considering the above two factors together, the number of email users should continue to increase and this increase will be especially pronounced for employees. However, since users with a lower level of education are continuously pouring into the total army of internet users, the future email usage rate will tend to be low.
 
Chart 11   Comparison of Users of Communications-type Applications in 2007 and 2008
 
2007
2008
Change
 
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Increase
(Millions)
Rate of
Increase
Email
56.5%
119
56.8%
269
50
42.0%
Instant Messaging
81.4%
171
75.3%
224
53
31.0%
 

2. Instant Messaging

The features provided by instant messaging programs are growing. Instant messaging is becoming a linking point for the socialized internet. Additionally, instant messaging platforms are gradually becoming an important entry point for email, blogs, online gaming, search and other types of internet applications. The usage rate for instant messaging was 75.3% in 2008. In comparison to 2007, there were 53 million more users of instant messaging, but the usage rate went down 6.1%. Analyzing by age, the proportion of users of instant messaging aged over 40 rose over the last year.  This is becase the primary increase in the number of users was with users aged 40 and over,  the instant messaging usage rate for those aged under 40 decreased.
 

(Four) Online Communities

1. Friend-finding Websites

The number of friend-finding websites in 2008 grew relatively greatly since 2007. The current usage rate is 19.3%. Dating websites increased their influence by cooperating with television stations and other traditional media forms. The recognition rate of dating websites also rose and the number of users is continuing to increase. School and career friend-finding models developed very quickly in 2008. By relying on current users, these websites added even more new users. The variety of application types (on-page games for example) and usage methods (mobile friend-finding for example) helped stimulate the increase in the number of users even more.
 
Chart 12   Comparison of Users of Community-type Applications in 2007 and 2008
 
2007
2008
Change
 
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Increase
(Millions)
Rate of
Increase
Have a Blog
-
-
54.3%
162
-
-
Updated Their Blog
23.5%
49
35.2%
105
56
114.3%
Forum/BBS
-
-
30.7%
91
-
-
Friend-finding Websites
-
-
19.3%
58
-
-
 

2. Blogs

The number of blog users continued to rise rapidly. As of December 2008, of the 298 million Chinese netizens, the proportion of netizens with blogs reached 54.3%.  This means there are 162 million blog users. At the same time the number of users increased, the level of activity of blogs in China increased – within a half-year the proportion of blogs that were updated was 11.7% higher than in 2007. The increase in the number of blogs has brought economies of scale with respect to the concentration of users. Blog channels on all types of websites have become standard. Of these, the addition of blogs to SNS websites has further pushed forth an increase in the number of blog users. The influence of blogs has further increased.
 

(Five) Online Entertainment

1. Online Gaming

The number of online gamers continued to rise in 2008. The proportion of those using online games increased from 59.3% in 2007 to 62.8% in 2008. This is mainly due to the abundance of game types and game content. The variety of online games increased their expandability with users of the older and younger age groups. Additionally, browser games, as a new form of game, developed rapidly in 2008. Since this type of game does not need to be downloaded by the user and is convenient to use, users are likely to play them at work. Also, the addition of browser games to SNS websites further increased the distribution of online games.
 
Chart 13   Comparison of Users of Entertainment-type Applications in 2007 and 2008
 
2007
2008
Change
 
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Increase
(Millions)
Rate of
Increase
Online Gaming
59.3%
125
62.8%
187
62
49.6%
Online Music
86.6%
182
83.7%
249
67
36.8%
Online Video
76.9%
161
67.7%
202
41
25.5%
 

2. Online Music

Online music is still the most used application. Although the proportion of users dropped from 86.6% in 2007 to 83.7% in 2008, the number of users still increased by 67 million. The widespread popularity of online music comes from the popular content as well as its convenience. The entry barrier for users is relatively low. Also, these characteristics have made online music one of the main forces pushing forward internet usage.
 

3. Online Video

The number of users of online video has only increased slightly. It only increased by 40 million since 2007, reaching 202 million users. Online video users are mainly in the 30 and under age group.
 

(Six) E-business

E-business is an application that is closely related to netizen’s lives. Over the past year, the number of online marketplaces has clearly grown. The number of online shoppers has already reached 74 million – an increase of 60% over last year. China’s usage rate for online shopping is low compared to countries such as South Korea and USA which have rates of 60.6% and 71% respectively.
 
 Chart 14   Comparison of Users of E-Business-type Applications in 2007 and 2008
 
2007
2008
Change
 
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Increase
(Millions)
Rate of
Increase
Online Shopping
22.1%
46
24.8%
74
28
60.9%
Online Selling
-
-
3.7%
11
-
-
Online Payment
15.8%
33
17.6%
52
19
57.6%
Travel Bookings
-
-
5.6%
17
-
-
 
 
Except for online shopping, online sales and travel bookings have already established a beginning user base. The number of users that sell online has already reached 11 million and the number of users that make travel bookings online has reached 17 million. What is worth noting is that “online sales” does not only include starting an online store, but also includes selling second-hand goods online.
 
Online payment systems, which are closely related to online shopping, have been developing extremely fast. Currently, the number of users has already reached 52 million, which is 57.6% greater than last year. This is effectively pushing forward the development of online shopping.
 

(Seven) Online Finance

1. Online Banking

The growth of online banking slowed in 2008. The current usage rate is 19.3%. The main users of online banking are university students and white collar workers. Most university students have already setup a bank account by the time they enter school, making school management and student/family financial management convenient. University students, white collar workers and others with a high level of education have a relatively high skill level when it comes to using the internet. They have a strong demand for online banking but do not fully trust the security of online banking and this affects the usage rate.
 
Chart 15   Comparison of Users of Finance-type Applications in 2007 and 2008
 
2007
2008
Change
 
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Increase
(Millions)
Rate of
Increase
Online Banking
19.2%
40
19.3%
58
18
45.0%
Online Trading
18.2%
38
11.4%
34
-4
-10.5%
 
 

2. Online Trading

The main users of online trading websites are employees of enterprises and professional technical staff as well as some university students. Online trading behaviour is directly related to the changes in the stock market. After enduring the effects on China’s financial markets, the use of online trading applications in China fell. The usage rate in 2008 was only 11.4% and the number of users dropped by 4 million.
 

(Eight) Online Education

The usage rate for online education was 16.5% in 2008, which is basically the same as 2007. The users are primary and middle school students as well as regular employees.
 
 
Chart 16   Comparison of Users of Education-type Applications in 2007 and 2008
 
2007
2008
Change
 
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Usage Rate
Number of
Netizens
(Millions)
Increase
(Millions)
Rate of
Increase
Online Education
16.6%
35
16.5%
49
14
40.0%
 
The “Network for Every School” project advanced the communication between China’s primary and middle schools and the construction of internet access platforms for these schools. Also, over the past few years the primary and middle school in-class courses already cannot satisfy the expectations of students’ parents. All types of online supplementary classes and courses have begun to become study material for primary and middle school students. Also, along with the increase in work-related stress, regular employees are paying more attention to professional skills training. English, accounting and other online educational courses are recommended by regular employees because they are easier to access during any time of the day and are relatively cheap. Online education will have room for further development within the next few years.

Internet Applications - 2: Internet Usage Behaviour of Key Groups

(One) Description of Several Key Groups

This section analyzes the internet usage behaviour of a few key groups:
These groups account for 74% of total netizens.
 

(Two) Internet Application Penetration Rates for Key Groups

Chart 17   The penetration rates by key group for each internet application
 
 
Primary
and Middle
School
Students
University
Students
Office
Workers
Migrant
Workers
General
Online
Media
Online
News
68.1%
89.9%
83.1%
73.4%
78.5%
Information
Search
Search
Engines
63.5%
84.4%
71.9%
56.6%
68.0%
Job-search
8.9%
29.5%
23.0%
23.7%
18.6%
Online
Communications
E-mail
52.2%
81.4%
60.4%
38.9%
56.8%
Instant
Messaging
77.5%
91.1%
75.0%
66.5%
75.3%
Online
Community
Own a
Blog
64.0%
81.4%
50.9%
43.1%
54.3%
Forum/BBS
24.1%
55.5%
34.6%
17.2%
30.7%
Friend-finding
Websites
16.8%
26.0%
20.2%
18.2%
19.3%
Online
Entertainment
Online
Music
86.9%
94.0%
83.4%
78.2%
83.7%
Online
Video
67.4%
84.4%
68.1%
57.3%
67.7%
Online
Games
69.7%
64.2%
60.6%
55.5%
62.8%
E-Business
Online
Shopping
16.2%
38.8%
29.4%
11.7%
24.8%
Online
Sales
2.1%
5.2%
4.4%
0.8%
3.7%
Online
Payment
9.6%
30.5%
22.4%
7.9%
17.6%
Travel
Booking
2.0%
6.8%
6.8%
2.5%
5.6%
Other
Online
Banking
7.7%
29.9%
25.5%
7.4%
19.3%
Online
Trading
4.7%
4.7%
15.5%
4.1%
11.4%
Online
Education
16.2%
25.6%
17.3%
7.8%
16.5%
 

Primary and Middle School Students

 
Primary and middle school students are not savvy users of internet applications. The only applications they use more than average are instant messaging, blogging, online music and online video. Members of this age group have the same basic psychological demands for fun and curiosity. Their use of online education is about average.  Except for receiving education from school, the internet acts as a supplementary study source for them. This is an important application for them.
 

University Students

 
University students are the most active group. Of the 18 applications in the survey, their use of all applications except for online trading was higher than average. They are extremely active on blogs and forums.  The active and curious nature of young people as well as the unlimited possibilities of the internet work to push forward internet use in this group. 80.3% of university students updated their blogs within the past half-year.
 

Office Workers

 
The activity level of office workers is second only to that of university students. They make use of online trading applications more than university students do, but their usage of other applications is lower than that of university students.
 

Migrant Workers

 
Migrant workers are the least active of the key groups. Their usage of all applications is below average, especially with regards to e-business and online finance.
 

(Three) Online Activity Rate of Key Groups

When analyzing the overall number of applications used and time spent online by key groups, two interesting “tradeoffs” were realized: university students used the most applications, but the time they spent online was less than that of office workers; although migrant workers internet usage behaviour was the simplest, the time they spent online was greater than that of primary and middle school students.
 
This pattern of netizen activity may be attributed to the following factors. University students are active and curious, they try each application, but due to academic restrictions, most of their time must still be spent on their courses.  Thus, they use a large number of applications but the amount of time they spend online is still less than that of office workers. Also, many office workers can go online while they are at work or even must go online as part of their job. However, their online behaviour has already matured and they are set on using several common applications. Primary and middle school students are under the guardianship of family and teachers so they cannot surf the internet for long periods of time whenever they want.  However, curiosity still drives them to try new internet applications. On the other hand, what migrant workers do with their spare time is not determined by others so they can spend relatively longer online.
 
Of course, the amount of leisure time and work (study) characteristics determine that the time spent online and number of applications used by primary and middle school students cannot be greater than that of university students. Similarly, the time spent online and number of applications used by migrant workers cannot be greater than that of office workers.

 

Internet Applications - 3: Netizen Groups by Internet Usage Behaviour

Birds of a feather flock together. One of the most effective ways to break down people into groups is based on their behaviour. Netizen usage of internet applications is an effective way to break down netizens into groups. Separating netizens into groups for further research based on their online behaviour provides more precisely targeted groups for use in internet administration, online marketing, e-business, etc.

This survey included 18 internet applications. Through overlapping tests, the group results for online news, online music and online video were not significant. The group results for online education and online job-search were relatively significant. The collinearity for online shopping, online banking and online payment was relatively strong, so the group analysis only used online shopping as a statistical variable. Through this, we only received 11 group variables.
 
The group characteristic indexes show: the overall average is 100 for the groups’ usage of a given application. If a group’s characteristic index for any application is greater than 100, it shows this group’s usage of this application is significantly greater than that of other groups. The formula used to derive group characteristic indexes is as follows:
Group characteristic index = the proportion of users of the group that use a given application ÷ the proportion of total users that use a given application × 100
 
The seven groups were given names based on their group characteristic indexes.
 
Chart 18   Characteristic Indexes of the Seven Groups
 
Alternative
Online
Gaming
Group
Internet-
Dependent
Group
Fundamental
Usage
Group
Self-display
Group
Internet
Business
Group
Beginning
Users
Online
Social
Group
 Overall
Average
Search
Engines
66
136
134
44
114
87
127
100
Email
36
164
143
34
136
72
151
100
Instant
Messaging
68
126
130
79
115
75
123
100
Own a
Blog
0
144
166
184
106
1
149
100
Visited a
Forum/BBS
32
326
80
29
1
38
253
100
Friend-finding
Websites
50
167
56
63
124
34
313
100
Online
Gaming
159
114
107
113
106
0
121
100
Online
Shopping
28
352
61
36
319
53
64
100
Online
Sales
21
467
42
38
249
26
89
100
Online
Trading
67
237
60
33
256
77
114
100
Online
Travel
Bookings
43
331
57
40
239
42
131
100
 
In order to more thoroughly analyze each group, the number of applications they use and the amount of time they spend online must be considered.
 
On average, Chinese netizens spend 16.6 hours per week online and use an average of 7.1 of the 18 applications. Users can be separated into three distinct classes:
1) Heavy users: includes the internet-dependent group, internet business group and online social group. Heavy users use the internet far more both in regards to the time spent online and the amount of applications they use.
2) Intermediate users: the fundamental usage group. Intermediate users are about average with respect to the number of internet applications they use and the time they spend online. Judged by the number of internet applications used, some users of this group are in a transition phase between moving from the light usage group to the heavy usage group.
3) Light users: includes the self-display group, alternative online gaming group and beginning users. They are far below the average both in regards to the number of applications used and the amount of time spent online. They have also been using the internet for the shortest time.
 
By combining their group characteristic indexes, the number of applications used and the time spent online, we have carried out the detailed analysis below.
 

1. Heavy Users

 
Internet-dependent group: this group accounts for almost 11% of the total number of netizens. Their group characteristic indexes for each application are higher than average. The most loyal users of the internet, they use more internet applications and spend the most time online each week.
 
Internet business group: with 6.7% of the total number of netizens, it is the smallest group. They are fairly similar to the internet-dependent group but spend much less time online and use far fewer applications. One of the biggest differences is that they almost never use forums. Their use of e-commerce, online trading and travel booking applications clearly outstrips their use of search engines, instant messaging, email and other fundamental applications.
 
Online social group: this group accounts for 12.3% of total netizens. Their use of social applications is clearly higher than the other groups. Their usage of instant messaging, blogs, forums, friend-finding websitesand other social-type internet applications is clearly on the high side.
 

2. Intermediate Users

 
Fundamental usage group: this group has grown to be the largest group and accounts for 21.5% of the total users. Their usage of search engines, email, instant messaging and other fundamental internet applications is far greater than average. However, their usage of other internet applications is clearly on the low side.
 

3. Light Users

 
Self-display group: this group accounts for 12.6%. 100% of them use blogs, but their usage of other applications is clearly below average. This group uses an average of 5.3 applications and spends an average of 12.27 hours online per week.
 
Alternative online gaming group: 100% of users in this group play online games. They account for almost 18% of the total number of netizens. Besides video games, this group’s usage of other online applications is far below average.
 
The characteristics of this group are clearly different from general online game-playing netizens. The age characteristic index of this group shows a concentration towards both ends (younger and older). When it comes to online behaviour, they are relatively simple, only using an average of 4.7 internet applications. They spend an average of 12 hours per week online which is lower than the overall average for netizens and much lower than the average for all online game-playing netizens. However, the majority of time they spend online is spent playing online games.
 
Beginning users: this group accounts for 18.2%, which is almost as large as the fundamental user group. This group does not have any outstanding characteristics with regards to usage of internet applications. They spend the least time online and use the fewest internet applications. They have also been using the internet for the shortest amount of time. They are the oldest with an average age of 33. This group shows how the number of older netizens is expanding.

Netizen Net-Lifestyle Research

One) Overall Analysis

Values and attitudes are important factors that influence people’s behaviour. By the same token, people’s behaviours also form their values and attitudes, especially with regards to newly emerging things. People do not yet fully understand newly emerging things and so they come to understand them gradually through contact with them. This process causes people’s values and attitudes to be imperceptibly influenced by these newly emerging things. As a kind of interactive media, information channel and life platform, the internet is particularly worth researching when it comes to how it affects people’s values.
 
In this survey, we used the Likert scale to measure 6 types of indicators of netizens’ values related to the internet. The overall results are in the chart below.
 
Chart 19   Netizens’ Level of Agreement with Lifestyle Statements
Type
Statement
Approval
Rate
Life
Aide
Without the internet, I cannot work or study.
39.0%
Without the internet, my entertainment life is boring.
59.1%
The internet reduces the amount of matters I have to physically attend to.
69.3%
Information
Channel
I usually see important news on the internet first.
61.8%
When I have a question, I look on the internet for an answer first.
64.6%
Contact
Tool
I met many new friends on the internet.
65.4%
The internet strengthens my connection with my friends.
82.5%
Social
Isolation
I feel very lonely in the internet age.
19.9%
The internet has reduced the amount of time I can spend with my family.
29.0%
Internet Trust
and Safety
The registration information I enter on the internet is genuine.
47.5%
It is safe to make transactions on the internet.
27.6%
Social
Participation
The internet is the main place that I express my opinion.
41.9%
After using the internet I pay more attention to social events.
76.9%
 
Overall, netizens’ level of agreement with the statements about using the internet as an information channel and contact tool was relatively high and the value of the internet as a life aide is becoming clearer. However, netizens’ trust of the internet and feeling of safety on the internet was relatively low. This is probably one of the main factors as to why the Chinese internet economy is relatively small. Along with the internet being used more in peoples’ lives, the internet has gradually given people a sense of distance (here called “social isolation”).
 

Two) Comparison of Netizen Lifestyles for Different Usage Groups

Different internet usage groups also expressed different levels of agreement with the measured lifestyle statements.
The online social group valued the internet as a contact tool more. The self-display group had a relatively high level of agreement with statements on social isolation and expressing opinions via the internet. The internet-dependent group and internet business group had a relatively high level of agreement with statements on internet trust and safety. The behaviour of these two groups with regards to e-business applications is noticeable. The internet dependent group’s level of the agreement with statements about using the internet as a life aide and information channel was also relatively high.
 
Chart 20   Level of Agreement with Lifestyle Statements for Netizens of Different Usage Groups
Type
 
Internet-
Dependent
Group
Internet
Business
Group
Online
Social
Group
Fundamental
Usage
Group
Self-display
Group
Alternative
Online
Gaming
Group
Beginning
Users
Life
Aide
Without the internet, I cannot work or study.
51.6%
42.8%
42.9%
38.4%
39.6%
31.8%
34.4%
Without the internet, my entertainment life is boring.
69.6%
68.4%
64.4%
61.9%
57.0%
52.6%
49.8%
The internet reduces the amount of matters I have to physically attend to.
82.8%
77.6%
76.6%
68.9%
63.3%
64.3%
62.5%
Information
Channel
I usually see important news on the internet first.
76.5%
68.1%
69.0%
58.5%
58.5%
56.3%
57.7%
When I have a question, I look on the internet for an answer first.
79.6%
76.8%
68.8%
61.0%
59.7%
58.7%
62.1%
Contact
Tool
I met many new friends on the internet.
63.1%
60.5%
73.3%
70.7%
71.5%
62.6%
55.6%
The internet strengthens my connection with my friends.
88.3%
84.8%
88.5%
87.3%
83.8%
75.8%
73.7%
Social
Isolation
I feel very lonely in the internet age.
20.6%
19.6%
20.7%
17.8%
23.0%
19.4%
20.4%
The internet has reduced the amount of time I can spend with my family.
32.5%
29.3%
28.4%
26.6%
30.2%
29.4%
29.4%
Trust and
Safety
The registration information I enter on the internet is genuine.
60.4%
55.1%
54.0%
46.3%
43.0%
42.4%
42.0%
It is safe to make transactions on the internet.
53.5%
47.6%
29.4%
22.0%
23.6%
20.6%
20.2%
Social
Participation
The internet is the main place that I express my opinion.
45.5%
42.8%
45.2%
38.7%
44.3%
39.9%
41.4%
After using the internet I pay more attention to social events.
77.2%
76.4%
80.6%
76.4%
77.0%
77.2%
74.9%
 

Three) Comparison of Netizen Lifestyles Based on Intensity of Usage

The intensity of usage of the internet can be measured in different ways. For example, it can be measured by the amount of time spent online, the number of internet applications used, how long a user has been using the internet, the frequency with which a netizen goes online, etc. Here we mainly base our analysis on the amount of time spent online and the number of internet applications used. Overall, for each lifestyle aspect, as the intensity of internet usage increases, the rate of approval rises. “Trust and safety,” “social isolation” – these two lifestyle factors are of wide interest to the public. Below, we introduce the level of agreement with statements in these two lifestyle statement categories based on intensity of internet usage.
 
We previously pointed out that netizens do not have a high level of agreement with regards to the “trust and safety” of the internet. However, as the intensity of internet usage increases, the level of agreement with the trust and safety statements also increases somewhat. This is mainly because netizens are becoming more and more proficient at using the internet and they are getting better and better at distinguishing and avoiding online threats. Skillful netizens are able to effectively avoid online dangers and unsafe elements of the internet so they have a higher level of agreement with the trust and safety statements. Less skillful netizens do not have the ability to recognize or avoid online traps. After hearing of cases involving internet dangers, their level of agreement with the internet trust and safety statements is on the low side.
 
Social isolation: as the intensity of internet usage increases, netizens' concern that the internet may produce social isolation increases. Using television as an example, television entered the lives of most Chinese people in the 80s. Television addiction resulted in many negative effects on society, such as alienation from family members, a decrease in time management, too much entertainment, etc. These negative effects caused some sociologists to call for people to “turn off the TV.” Along with the more widespread and intense usage of the internet and the continuing rise of internet addiction, the internet may very well become the next thing to trouble mankind.
 
Chart 21   Level of Agreement with Lifestyle Statements for Netizens That Use the Internet for Different Amounts of Time
 
 
Under 2 Hours
2 - 5 Hours
5 - 10 Hours
10 - 20 Hours
20 - 40 Hours
Over 40 Hours
Social
Isolation
I feel very lonely in the internet age.
17.3%
19.6%
19.0%
20.2%
21.5%
20.8%
The internet has reduced the amount of time I can spend with my family.
27.3%
24.3%
27.9%
29.3%
35.1%
33.9%
Trust and
Safety
The registration information I enter on the internet is genuine.
41.0%
43.9%
47.0%
48.6%
52.6%
55.0%
It is safe to make transactions on the internet.
22.2%
23.1%
26.8%
29.0%
33.8%
36.1%
 
Chart 22   Level of Agreement with Lifestyle Statements for Netizens That Use a Different Number of Applications
 
 
Under 3
4 - 6
7 - 9
10 - 12
Over 12
Social
Isolation
I feel very lonely in the internet age.
24.3%
19.2%
19.0%
19.1%
22.4%
The internet has reduced the amount of time I can spend with my family.
30.4%
27.5%
28.2%
30.3%
35.5%
Trust and
Safety
The registration information I enter on the internet is genuine.
40.5%
42.2%
48.2%
56.9%
59.2%
It is safe to make transactions on the internet.
16.9%
21.2%
25.0%
42.3%
55.5%