A REAL PUZZLER: Are there 15.2M, 16.9M or 22.5M China netizens?
There are currently three main conflicting reports on the mainland's Internet use. CNNIC says 22.5 million have access, International Data Corp. says 16.9 million, and IAMAsia puts the figure at 15.2 million.
On Jan. 17, Beijing’s Internet monitoring agency, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), released its seventh report on the development of Internet use in China, in which it found that 22.5 million people had access to the Web.
However, according to the International Data Corp. (IDC), mainland Internet users number around 16.9 million. Interactive Audience Measurement Asia Ltd. (IAMAsia), a Hong Kong-based company engaged in Internet surveys, also recently published statistics that show the number of mainland Internet users at approximately 15.2 million.
IDC figures
IDC classified Internet users into two categories: the casual user and the regular user. Casual users have no commercial value to the Internet, so the Internet users defined in the IDC statistical report refer only to the regular users, the Feb. 6 Beijing Qingnian Bao (Beijing Youth Daily) reported.
The IDC’s universally adopted definition of Internet users rules out Web surfers in Internet cafés. However, in China, many people regularly access the Internet via these establishments. Therefore, an exception was made to IDC’s rule and this group was also included as regular Internet users.
Wan Ning, the assistant general manager of IDC (China), said that the CNNIC’s calculation method is too simplified. The CNNIC's lack of a specific reference system has resulted in distorted figures, according to Wan.
IDC made a detailed classification of various Chinese groups accessing the Internet. It conducted online and written surveys of each group to determine the proportion of Web users within each group. The total number of Chinese Internet users was then obtained by calculating the proportion of these groups in relation to the total Chinese population.
Wan said that the different analytic methods and definitions used by the three companies have resulted in the disparity in statistics.
CNNIC and IAMAsia
"Our figures are accurate and authoritative. Other figures, such as those published abroad, are inaccurate and have no real basis," said a CNNIC official quoted by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Feb. 6.
According to Mao Wei, director of the CNNIC, IDC is a business and its definition of Internet use therefore naturally considers commercial value. However, the CNNIC is a nonprofit-making institution and its survey is a type of social investigation. Consequently, Internet users in the eyes of the CNNIC are not necessarily required to have commercial value—they just need to have access and use the Internet, Mao said.
Yang Fenglei, director of the CNNIC’s Information Service Department, which was responsible for the survey, ascribes the difference in the three figures to the various definitions of Internet users and methods used by the three organizations.
IAMAsia, for its part, maintains that its figures are precise. The Hong Kong-based company said its sample survey covered 31,210 people from 13 large cities and asserts that it is the first to do a statistically valid poll of mainland Internet use.
According to the SCMP, the way the CNNIC and IAMAsia collect their respective data "suggests that IAMAsia is far more liberal in defining an Internet user and, as such, should have produced higher numbers. The Hong Kong company counts anyone online once in a month as a user, while CNNIC requires that people be online for at least one hour every week."
Steve Yap, IAMAsia’s director of communications, told the SCMP, "We call it like we see it and CNNIC calls it like they see it; that is about all I can say. Web measurement is a very complex art and we all have to work to improve."
Internet statistics from CNNIC, IAMAsia, and IDC
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