Chinese Internet Users Up to 210 Million

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The official China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) announced yesterday that the country's online population was now at 210 million, having grown 53%, from 137 million reported at the same time last year, and was well on the way to surpassing the US's within the near future. According to the government's Xinhua News Agency, China is only 5 million behind the United States online, a figure consistent with some American estimates.

Of course, while the numbers look impressive, there's more to the internet usage than pure population. Xinhua placed China's online penetration rate at 16 percent - the point Americans were at in the mid-1990s. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 75 percent of American adults are now online; penetration is even higher when teens are included. (China's stats cover Chinese 6 and older.) "We're two countries at very different points along the adoption curve," said John Horrigan, Pew's associate director. "China is approximately 15 years behind."

View: Full Story at the AP

(2 replies) #1 Gamerhomie on 20 Jan 2008 - 04:00

Wow, that's a huge growth spurt.

#1.1 Slimy on 20 Jan 2008 - 04:02

And it's only going to continue... China is a huge market for internet companies!

#1.2 toadeater on 20 Jan 2008 - 07:41

(Slimy said @ #1.1)

After that is India. Another billion people waiting to become WoW subscribers.

#2 tkhal89 on 20 Jan 2008 - 05:56

do u think they have bandwidth problems too ? lol

(2 replies) #3 KevinRGood on 20 Jan 2008 - 08:04

That's still only one percent of the population.

#3.1 benjasmine on 20 Jan 2008 - 08:55

1%? that's more than 10%.....
around 15% actually...
this is a humongous market, and they don't have piracy regulation on Internet yet.

#3.2 whocares78 on 21 Jan 2008 - 07:43

pulled that number out of your **** the actual population is around 1,321,851,888 so yeah benjasmine is a hell of a lot closer

by about 15 times

#4 shen on 20 Jan 2008 - 09:59

that's fantastic. now let's do a study and see how many of them can see honest, unfiltered news and information from any source they choose.

what'll that number be? like, 8 people?

(2 replies) #5 Foub on 20 Jan 2008 - 10:49

What's this on a per capita basis when compared to Western nations? (Which is really the only fair way to measure this sort of thing) China has 1.3 billion people so 210 million is around 16% of the entire population. Doesn't sound as impressive as 210 million and on a per capita basics it would look even less impressive.

#5.1 linsook on 20 Jan 2008 - 12:56

well if you look at it like that, i suppose it doesnt look that impressive however if you put the data side by side with growth rate of China with regards to anything, in this instance the internet, it looks very impressive. having the internet population grow 50% in one year is amazing in itself. is it impressive now? what will it be at in a years time? 2 years time? 3, 4? again, apply that with anything and compare growth/adoption rate with that of any western country, stand back and be dumb founded. applies to india as well.

#5.2 Sagittarius on 20 Jan 2008 - 14:48

Well, you know, I did write:

(2 replies) #6 Foub on 20 Jan 2008 - 14:13

Here's another example, linsook. Say a place had one murder one year and the next year they had two murders. Their murder rate went up 100% in only one year. That certainly looks terrible. You have to be very careful when using stats. They can be made to say anything. This is why comparing things, like this, on a per capita basis is the only fair method.

#6.1 linsook on 20 Jan 2008 - 14:50

we are looking at it in two different views. i'm looking at it as part of the countries incredible growth rate, and internet being a consequence of. and to me it is impressive considering where they not long ago.

#6.2 Foub on 20 Jan 2008 - 16:05

(linsook said @ #6.1)

We had the same sort of growth as well when we started....... You see 1.3 billion people and don't take it into prospective. Plus, as others on here are pointing out is that just because they may have access to the internet doesn't mean that it is FULL access either, and many of them are accessing it through public terminals as well.

#7 Davebo on 20 Jan 2008 - 15:16

Yep - all staring at the same dozen web pages, thinking they've got the world by the balls.

If they would throw off their ridiculous leadership - THEN you'd see a growth spurt.......

(1 reply) #8 Shadrack on 20 Jan 2008 - 18:58

ISP better start bracing themselves. IPv4 is going to have to get the ax soon as IPv6 steps up to the plate to handle all these new connections.

#8.1 whocares78 on 21 Jan 2008 - 07:47

ever heard of NAT, they said the same stuff about 10 years ago, but NAT sorted out that problem..

(1 reply) #9 XerXis on 20 Jan 2008 - 19:42

what's the use of internet if you don't have the freedom to read encyclopedias, can't post blogs or videos and are not allowed to do anything that's remotely against a way too strict government regulation

#9.1 vipwoody on 21 Jan 2008 - 04:32

100% correct, thank you

#10 Dhilian on 30 Nov 2008 - 03:29

210 million unhappy web users

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