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.

 

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.

 

	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.

 

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.