Mobile Web More Popular In China Than In US
You probably know that China is the promised land when it comes to growth in mobile communications. But did you know in China the mobile internet is actually more popular than in the United States?
In March 2010 Nielsen did research on the usage of mobile internet in China and published the outcomes in their Mobile Insights Report on China. Data is based on face-to-face surveys with 4,946 consumers age 15 and up in 19 cities around China.
As the report states, widespread ownership of mobiles is only a fairly recent development in China, but consumers there have fully embraced the technology and in some ways are using it more robustly than their American and European counterparts.
Now let’s look at some insights on key user groups. 755 million Chinese now have a cell phone subscription, and 54% of the Chinese mobile users are classified as advanced data users, accessing emails, web browsing and gaming are just some of their day-to-day activities.
An equally interesting graph in the report is the difference in usage of the mobile web between China and the US. Although Chinese have less 3G network coverage and own fewer smartphones, they tend to use their mobile phones to access the Internet while on the go more than Americans (38% vs. 27%). Meanwhile, Americans used their mobile devices more than Chinese for e-mail (25% vs. 8%) and picture messaging (37% vs. 22%).
According the Nielsen research, for many people in China the mobile Web is the only one they need. Would this be a change of culture compared to the western countries? Or is China, like so many times before, ahead in mobile web usage and will the rest of the world follow their example?
Read all insights at Nielsen Wire.
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Most Chinese people discovered “the internet” as we know it, on their mobile phone…
What is the Chinese (and people from India) would massively embrace facebook? Would facebook that hit one billion members soon?
Cheers
Igor,
facebook cannot be effectively be reached from China without workarounds. Those workarounds tend to be slow and/or shut down on a regular basis. Hence, Chinese stick to the Chinese alternatives and only use FB to check on their foreign friends once in a while. The scenario you are describing wont become reality in China…
A Chinese contact informed me that China has their own Facebook and that Chinese people don’t really care that much about Facebook…