Surpassing 100 million, Chinese living connected

The "17th Survey on China's Internet Development" published on the 17th reported that, by the end of Dec 31, 2005, China's internet users reached 111 million. It saw a big increase of 17 million over the user base at the end of 2004. About 8.5% of the population now have access to internet. This compares with about 970 million internet users worldwide with 15.2% access rate.
The survey showes both the number of internet users and broadband access are ranked second in the world. The number of IP addresses has also reached number three in the world. Internet access fees also reached a record high of 100 billion yuan or about $12.5 billion.

Mao Wei from CNNIC commented that "China's internet had a giant leap in 2005".


Who's on the net?

Male, younger, higher education, higher income populations have the highest access rate. Rural area access rate is still a mere 2.6%.

What people do on the net?

Figure showes top three choices of being online:
1. News surfing(67.9%); 2. Search(65.7%); 3. Email(64.7%)

The survey found average internet user spends 15.9 hours each week, an increase of 2.7 hrs or 20.5% over last year. It indicates that people are more and more relied on the internet. The influence of the internet on people's lives are also emerged.

The survey also found average user spends monthly access fee of 103.6 yuan, or about $13.oo which does not include fees for other online services. On the category of online purchases, 61.5% of users are now willing to use online payment services while 36.1% are still only willing to pay on delivery.

The data indicates a very bright propect of China's internet market and development. "Internet is entering the mainstream of China's economy and becoming a strategic industry", added Mao.

Net Resources

Nationwide, the number of websites reached 694,200. It has increased by 25,300 in the year.

Domain names(including .cn, .com, .net, and .org top level names) reached 2,592,410. Domain names registered under .cn also broke record of one million (1,096,924). It increased 153.9% from 2004 and becoming the top choice for domestic applicants. The domain number is ranked way on top in Asia and 6th worldwide. The growth rate of .cn domain is also a wopping 8.8times higher than common domain names such as .com etc.

There is still huge potential for the growth of .cn domain. For example, there are only 2 domain names per thousand Chinese. While there are 150 domain names per thousand German.

Chinese source : szonline
All figures are from CNNIC.