China's Internet Population Reaches 26.5 Million
August 1, 2001 (TOKYO) -- China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), a Chinese Internet management organization, announced details about Internet use in China as of the end of June 2001. It said that Internet users in China have reached about 26.5 million, and the number is still growing, although a slowdown in the rate of growth is evident.
A brisk increase in Internet users continued until the first half of 2000, nearly doubling in number about every six months. By the end of June 2000, China's Internet population had reached about 16.9 million.
However, the previous survey at the end of December 2000 showed the number had increased by 33 percent to 22.5 million. The latest statistics showed an increase of 18 percent to 26.5 million, indicating signs of a slowing pace both in numbers and rates.
The number of Internet-connected computers rose from 8.92 million at the time of the last survey to the level of 10.02 million.
The number of ".cn" domains issued by CNNIC is 128,362, a small margin of increase considering that the number recorded in the last survey was 122,099.
Broken down by region, Guangdong province has about 18,000 domains, an increase from 17,043 in the last survey; Shanghai has 11,913 (up from the last survey's 11,141); and Beijing has 44,304 domains (falling from the last survey's 44,605).
Moreover, the number of Web sites in China has dropped from 265,405 sites in the last survey to 242,739. Classified by type, ".com.cn" used as corporate sites declined by nearly 30,000 from 221,988 sites recorded in the previous survey.
In Beijing, the number of sites has dropped by about 10,000 from 62,158 sites in the last survey. Chinese high-tech stocks listed on the U.S. Nasdaq market such as Sina.com, China.com and Sohu.com are all wavering at low levels. The sluggish business performances of the world's high-tech industries centering on those of the United States are affecting China, leading to the failure of Internet-related venture businesses and resulting in the decreases in the number of Web sites.
As for the number of Internet users, classified by form of connection, dial-up users topped the list at 17.93 million; followed by 4.54 million users of always-on connections, including LANs; and 4.03 million people using both the dial-up and always-on connection types.
Also, China had 1.07 million users of non-computer devices connected to the Internet such as mobile terminals and Net household appliances.
Utilization of the Internet by gender is as follows: 61.3 percent men and 38.7 percent women (as compared to the previous survey's 69.56 percent vs. 30.44 percent, respectively). People in the 31-40 age range are most frequent users and in terms of educational background, notable growth is seen among high school students.
The main purpose of using the Internet is "to obtain news and various other types of information" which account for 42.9 percent and "for chatting and associating with personal friends," 34.4 percent.
Those are followed by "business use," 5.8 percent; "use for studying," 4.3 percent; "keeping contact with outside sources via e-mail, instant messages and facsimile," 4.1 percent, and "stock trading," 4.1 percent.
"Shopping or commercial transactions on the Internet" comprises only 0.3 percent of the total. The most frequently used services are e-mail, searches and software downloading. On average, people use the Internet 3.3 days per week, or 8.7 hours of connection time per week.
As for the place of Internet use, "home" accounted for 61.0 percent, followed by "business firms," 45.1 percent; "schools," 18.3 percent; and "Internet cafes," 15.2 percent.
In the last survey, the ratio of Internet cafes was as high as 20.55 percent, but that appears to have tumbled. Internet use has spread among homes, corporations and schools, and police are said to have intensified control over Internet cafes. Due to such circumstances, the ratio of Internet cafes has decreased. |
