Wednesday, January 27, 1999
Cell Phone, Internet Use
Begins Rapid Rise In China
BEIJING (Nikkei)--The use of cellular phones and the
Inter net has begun to increase rapidly in China.
The number of cell phone subscribers climbed by 10.33
million last year, the first time the annual numerical
increase has exceeded Japan's. This brought the total
cumulative number of subscribers by year-end to 23.56
million, the highest in the world after the U.S. and Japan.
The figure accounts for less than 2% of the population,
and thus proportionally it is far behind Japan and the
U.S., where use is more than 30%. Nevertheless, if rates
continue to fall, China could become the world leader in
the number of cell phones in service in about a decade.
Cell phone service was introduced in China in 1987, but
the number of users failed to make impressive gains until
1996, when it began to increase rapidly. Monthly basic
service charges of some 50 yuan (about 700 yen)
amount to nearly 10% of the average monthly salary of an
urban worker, but use is increasing among executives of
state-run firms, workers at foreign-capitalized companies
and the self-employed.
The number of Internet users as of Dec. 31 totaled 2.1
million, 3.1 times the year-earlier figure. Providers
generally cost a whopping 100-200 yuan per month,
which is why corporations comprise the majority of
customers. Individual customers are beginning to
increase in number, however.
In 1998, some 3.5 million personal computers were sold
in China, but that figure is forecast to top 6 million this
year. With more and more governmental institutions and
private companies setting up Net sites, the number of
Internet users is now expected to reach 13 million by the
end of next year, some industry observers say.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Thursday morning edition)
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