RSSChina now counts more Internet users than the US
By Michael Hatamoto | Published July 25, 2008, 4:10 PM
Even though the government places heavy restrictions on the Internet with censorship and routine crackdowns on cyber dissidents, China has finally surpassed the United States for the most online users in the world.
The China Internet Network Information Center compiled the numbers that indicate China now has 253 million total Web surfers, with the United States coming in at an estimated 223 million users. China has a total population of more than 1.3 billion people, compared to the United States' 301 million.
So while China still has a higher number of overall Internet users, just 19.1 percent of citizens have a connection to the Web, while 71 percent of homes in the US are wired, the Pew Internet and American Life Project recently discovered. The global average of Internet connections is 21 percent.
Still, Internet usage in China is up 56 percent from just one year ago, with online music, instant messaging and news updates the three most popular applications. Furthermore, Chinese users under the age of 30 make up nearly 69 percent of the country's Internet users.
Not surprisingly, natural disasters that ravaged certain parts of China -- for example, the snow storms and the Sichuan province earthquake -- were popular search queries by Chinese users, along with news regarding the summer Olympics, which start in a couple of weeks.
The vast difference in percentage of Internet users may look like a disadvantage to China, but the country's Internet growth will only continue to increase -- and its Internet user lead with it. According to the BDA China research firm, Web usage is expected to grow up to 18 percent per year, and the number of Internet users in the country is estimated to be 490 million by 2012.
This Internet explosion has also enabled a number of Chinese-based Web services to compete against foreign companies. Although domestic Internet services are still growing, foreign corporations, largely from the United States and western Europe, continue to try and get their slice of the pie.
Much to the delight of phone manufacturers, wireless carriers and software companies such as Sun Microsystems, which creates Java software for mobile devices, 29 percent of all Chinese Internet users accessed the Internet through their phones. More than 601 million people worldwide now use their phone to view the Internet.
Mobile browsing is especially popular in developing regions where phone infrastructure exists, but Internet connectivity to homes is sparse. China has at least 500 million mobile phone users, and carriers in the country are beginning to roll out high-speed 3G coverage throughout heavily populated regions.
Must be all this retro no-sex-before-mariage and post-modern gay mariage trend going on in the US....
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|...and they are all spamming me....or so it seems.
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|China is still working on their own, very unique, 3G protocol and hardware, so I wonder how any company is already rolling out anything, unless of course, they're talking about HK, which is a bit more open than the rest of China.
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|What makes you think a colonized city with foreign rulers until it returns to is motherland is "more open"?
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|try restating this confused mess more coherently.
But I suspect that wherever you are going with this is simply complete nonsense.
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|it's better than Japan, where you can bring in a phone and you're sure that it won't work.
In China, at least it works.
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|Because a democracy (even very imperfect) is always more open than a dictatorship.
And motherland is a term coined and used by patriotic fascist since WWII so.
There is no "MotherLand" only free human beings, or human being that should be free.
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|Your 3G phone should work in Japan and Korea - mine does... different story if you haven't
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|I question the numbers provided by China Network Information Center. Not that it really matters, because it is the volume of internet transactions that count (clicks, purchases, ads read).
The fact that 71% US households are wired internet access is much more impressive than 250 million that may have used the internet at some point recently.
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|What makes you think that's the way the counted? I can tell you seriously, I did a research in 2000 and the home-wired Internet account in China back then was 89 million. Can I trust you to do the rest of the math?
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|I guess if access through an Internet cafe counts, China is highest.
I sincerely doubt the figures for mobile phone 'Net access. Most Chinese don't even talk, send SMS instead. Why? Cost.
But, yeah, QQ is heads and shoulders over, say, Yahoo in China.
And, so?
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|Most Chinese don't even talk? Or send SMS? I'm sorry to tell you that comparing with them, we're like in the stone age now. How can I wake you up to this fact?
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|Complete and utter Nonsense!
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|Bring on the porn and malware !
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|This is where "per capita" comes in handy. Its the only fair way to measure some things.
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|Yeah the US strives for the highest per capita in everything ...including pollution, obesity & murders, to main but a few.
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|Not true...but as we have learned many times margin is as important or more than volume. Particularly, if you trying to re-invest in those less polluting technologies...when could China develop to be looked on as the standard.
Be sarcastic, if you want...your slightly veiled criticism points out the importance of the U.S. leadership.
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|Slightly? [rollseyes]
When America uses less that a third of the world's resources with only 5% of the world's population.....
If you are truly serious with US leadership then the US should lead in cutting emissions and the like.... Lead by example.
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