Majority of China’s Newest Internet Users Prefer Mobile

Seventy percent of China’s newest internet users prefer to access the web via mobile devices, according to a new report published by iResearch China. In addition, the data shows the rate at which the Chinese are adopting mobile grew in 2015 as well, from 85 percent to 90 percent.

As of December 2015, the number of mobile internet users approached 620 million in China, with overall internet users reaching 690 million. The iResearch report drew data from the annual statistical report on internet development conducted by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

The latest numbers mean half (50.3 percent) of China’s population is now on the internet. This exceeds the global average by 3.9 percent and the Asian average by 10.1 percent.

“Among the new netizens, young people under 19-years-old and students accounted for 46.1 percent and 46.4 percent separately, for the portable mobile phone met their large demand for entertainment and communication,” wrote the authors of the iResearch report.

Use of mobile apps is generally growing as well, especially with instant messaging. As of December 2015, IM apps reached 620 million unique users.

For PC users in China, search engines continue to be the top platform used, underscoring the importance of a presence on search. Online video is the second most popular platform, which continued steady growth in 2015.

The platforms with the most significant growth were news and e-commerce. Monthly unique users of news and e-commerce hit 480 million and 460 million with the growth of 13.2 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively.

Number of Baidu Mobile Search Users Reaches 663 Million

Mobile search is also seeing significant growth. According to China Internet Watch, Baidu, China’s largest search engine, announced in March 2016 that its monthly active users for mobile search reached more than 663 million. This represented a 9 percent increase year-over-year.

Contributing to the considerable growth are two Baidu features: Baidu mobile maps users were up 19 percent year-over-year with 321 million users, while Baidu Wallet had 65 million accounts (a 151 percent growth) at the end of March.

In addition, mobile revenue comprised 60 percent of total revenues for the first quarter of 2016; up from 50 percent in 2015.