Thursday, April 03, 2008

Internet use in China

A post over at The Future of Cities mentions some date on Internet use in China, which is revealing as to the urban/rural split:



  • Number of Internet users, 12/2007: 210 million (compare with U.S. at 215 million...getting close)
  • Penetration: 5% rural/20% urban/45% Beijing, Shanghai
  • 60% of population is rural; vast majority not online, mainly because of “not understanding how to use computer” but also because of lack of infrastructure
  • 3 of every 100 rural households has computer; 47 of every 100 urban households has computer
  • About 1/3 using commercial Internet cafés
  • Rural migrant workers are paying highest monthly rates for Internet use: they value it highly and they will drive diffusion
  • Cost: 900 yuan a year for home broadband, compared with about 600 in Internet café;
  • Average price of 100Kbps of broadband in China costs $10.85 per month, about 20x US costs
  • Chinese users pay average 10% of monthly income
  • Mobile: About one-quarter have ever used mobile to go online in last 6 months, of those about half are between ages of 18-24, and two-thirds of total are men.


Read the original post here
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