As of the end of 2009, there are over 380 million Chinese internet users! That's about 90 million more than there was at the end of 2008 and the number is expected to continue to grow by leaps and bounds for at least the next several years. To put that in perspective, at the beginning of 2009, China had more internet users than USA had citizens and China continues to three times the population of Australia to their user base each year.

The following stats are from a Chinese government report "Statistical Survey Report on Internet Development in China."

China's internet users are relatively young and have lower average earnings than Western internet users. About 32% of them are between the ages of 10 and 19; another 29% between the ages of 20 and 29; and 22% between the ages of 30 and 39. Only about 17% of Chinese internet users are over the age of 40. About 28% of Chinese internet users make less than 500 Yuan per month, 28% make between 500 and 1500 Yuan, about another 29% make between 1500 and 3000 Yuan and 15% make over 3000 Yuan. One US Dollar is equal to 6.8 Chinese Yuan.

Internet usage in China varies greatly across the country. The Eastern coastal areas have already reached an internet penetration rate of over 30%, while the rest of the country lags behind. The Chinese government has been investing heavily in bringing the internet to poorer areas and rural areas and the number of Chinese internet users is picking up quickly in these areas, but not as quickly as it is in the richer urban areas. Some large cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai have already reached internet penetration rates over 50%. There is still much room for the number of Chinese internet users to grow.

Chinese internet users have been picking up new technology very quickly. The usage of laptops has grown over 40% in the past year and the usage of mobile devices to access the internet has doubled. Broadband is synonymous with internet as most locations never used dial-up connections to begin with. Chinese youth especially are likely to "take the internet with them" on their mobile devices. The massive growth in mobile internet usage is expected to continue as mobile service providers push out new smart phones and 3G devices.

They also continue to be particularly focused on entertainment. Downloading and streaming music is the most common internet activity for Chinese users. Online gaming, video and social networking are also hugely popular. Search engines are also very popular, now with a reported 280 million Chinese search engine users. Of interest to people selling products in China, online transactions have doubled over the past year to 250 billion Yuan (approximately 36.5 billion US Dollars). The growth of local payment systems and e-commerce websites has been tremendous over the past couple years and is expected to continue to explode.

Tate Law is a contributor to http://www.East-West-Connect.com, a blog about Chinese internet users, Chinese website translation, Chinese trends on the internet and Chinese-language online marketing.

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