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In last month, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) released the 26th Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China for the first half year of 2010. As usual, I put together a summary of this report to give you a quick high-level understanding of the up-to-date Chinese Internet landscape.

I. Netizen Size

By June 30, 2010, the number of Chinese netizens exceeded 400 million, up 9.4% from late 2009 and increasing by 36 million within six months. In line with the sustained increase in the number of Internet users, the popularization rate of the Internet has been rising steadily in China.

• The total number of netizens in China had increased to 420 million
• The Internet penetration rate reached 31.8%
• 364 million netizens (86.7% of total) access the Internet via broadband
• 277 million netizens (66.0% of total) access the Internet via mobile phones while 49 million (11.7% of total) ONLY use mobile phones to access Internet

II. Netizen Demographic

The proportion of male users to female users in China had been 55:45, with a slight increase of male users. The age structure of Chinese Internet users was optimized constantly, showing a trend of maturity. The proportion of users aged 30 to 39 increased considerably within six months. Internet users are still tilting gradually to low education and low income.

• Gender:

- 54.8% male netizens and 45.2% female netizens

• Age:

- 1.1% under 1
- 31.8% between 10 – 19
- 28.1% between 20 – 29
- 22.8% between 30 – 39
- 11.3% between 40 – 49
- 4.9% between 50 – 59
- 2.0% 60 or older

• Education:

- 9.2% with elementary or lower
- 27.5% with up to middle school
- 40.1% with up to high school or basic technical training
- 12.0% with college school
- 11.3 with a bachelors degree or higher

• Profession:

- 30.7% Students
- 7.9% Employees in Party, government, and institute
- 3.8% Executives
- 15.1% Enterprise Staff
- 9,9% Technical professionals
- 1.7% Rural migrant workers
- 3.1% Workers in industries and service industries
- 16.7% Self-employed/Freelancer
- 4.7% Agricultural, forestry, husbandry, fishery laborers
- 2.0% Retirees
- 4.2% Jobless, laid-off and unemployed people
- 0.3% Others

• Income (RMB):

- 8.1% no income
- 20.5% Under 500
- 13.5% 500 – 1000
- 13.9% 1000 – 1500
- 14.4% 1500 – 2000
- 14.4% 2000 – 3000
- 10.1% 3000 – 5000
- 2.8% 5000 – 8000
- 2.3% Above 8000

• Structure:

- 72.6% urban netizens, and 27.4% rural netizens

III. Netizen Behavior (Internet Access)

Home is still the primary place netizens browse Internet. Less and less people went to Internet Cafes, while more and more people surfing the Internet in the office. Netizens spent more time (increased 1.1 hours a week) on Internet than half year ago. The utilization rates of both mobile phone and laptop grew up.

• Access Places:

- 88.4% from home
- 33.6% from Internet cafes
- 33.2% from office

• Access Time:

- average 19.8 hours a week

• Access Devices:

- 73.6% via desktop computers
- 65.9% via mobile phones
- 36.8% via laptop computers
- 0.8% via other devices

IV. Netizen Behavior (Internet Application)

Although Google made a big operation change in the China market, the popularity of search engine service still showed a positive increase. With the hot phenomenon of Microblogging in the first half year of 2010, social networking service became even more popular. Net literature earned a sustaining growth rate with iPad’s launch globally and up-and-coming SNDA Bambook locally. Online shopping, paying, and banking is a lightspot with over 30% increase in utilization rate.

• Popular Internet Applications:

- 82.5% netizens are using online music service
- 78.5% netizens are using online news service
- 76.3% netizens are using search engine service
- 72.4% netizens are using instant messaging service
- 70.5% netizens are using online gaming service
- 63.2% netizens are using online video service
- 56.5% netizens are using email service
- 55.1% netizens are using blog service
- 50.1% netizens are using social networking service
- 44.8% netizens are using net literature
- 33.8% netizens are using online shopping service
- 31.5% netizens are using BBS/forum
- 30.5% netizens are using online paying service
- 29.1% netizens are using online banking service
- 15.0% netizens are using online stock speculation service
- 8.6% netizens are using online travel reservation

Below is the full report (in Chinese), and you can also download it here in PDF.