Internet Applications - 3: Netizen Groups by Internet Usage Behaviour

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.