China is now the biggest internet market in the world (by number of users). As the China economy grows and their ability to spend online increases, we will find that many web sites will need to consider, or even cater to the Chinese demographic.

Here are some interesting insights into the internet usage in China that I read on the Thomas Crampton site:

William Bao Bean from SoftBank:

Growing up in a one-child household makes Chinese children lonely and keen to connect, hence the obsessive use of the Internet by China’s young generation.


http://www.youtube.com/v/B5JUpJ355-M&hl=en

China’s young Internet users interact more online
Nearly 70 percent of Chinese youth use social networking sites and they have a lot more Internet friends than in the US. Chinese have 37 friends whom they have never met before, whereas US youth have 18 online-only friends

And they download more music
Nearly 60 percent of youth in China download music, compared with 32 percent in the US.

Yet, online spending remains relatively low
While the total adspend of China will be $25.8 billion in 2007 only about 4.3% of total goes online (compared with 12% in the USA). That said, online spend is growing strongly, with 55% growth in 2007. Search ad spending in particular is expected to grow 64% in 2007 and 2008.

http://www.thomascrampton.com/uncategorized/adtech-william-bao-bean-on-chinas-internet-youth/
http://www.thomascrampton.com/china/william-bao-bean-china-internet-one-child-policy/

Matt Watson, Technical Director

Labels: Web Culture and Trends