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:
- primary and middle school students
- university students
- office workers
- migrant workers
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.
This is one page of the CNNIC's 23rd report on internet development in China as translated by Nanjing Marketing Group.
CNNIC, which stands for "China Internet Network Information Center," is a Chinese government organization that, among other things, produces reports about internet development in China.
Nanjing Marketing Group provides cross-cultural online marketing, market research and translation services. Contact.
