Nearly Half of 731 Million Chinese Internet Users Have Joined Live Streaming Platforms

(Chinese Version)

On January 22nd, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) issued the 39th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China. According to the report, the total number of Chinese Internet users increased by 42.99 million (year-on-year) to 731 million as of December 2016. More specifically, the number of mobile Internet users in China reached 695 million, an increase of over 10 per cent for three consecutive years. Moreover, the Internet penetration has reached 53.2 per cent up to December, 2016

Among the total Chinese internet users, the proportions of those using desktops and laptops as means to access the Internet were 60.1 per cent and 36.8 per cent, respectively; the proportion of those using smartphones as means to access the Internet was 95.1 per cent, up 5.0 per cent compared to the end of 2015; and this proportion was 31.5 per cent for tablet computers and 25.0 per cent for TVs

Moreover, China had 344 million live streaming users (accounting for 47.1 per cent of all Chinese internet users) up to June 2016, up by 19.32 million compared to June 2016. More specifically, live game broadcasting developed most rapidly, while live concert streaming, live sports broadcasting and host live shows developed steadily.

As to the Chinese online meal ordering market, Ele, Meituan Takeaway and Baidu Takeaway are the three dominant players. Up to December of the year, 209 million internet users (accounting for 28.5 per cent of total Chinese internet users) had ordered meals online, an annual increase of 83.7 per cent. Specifically, 194 million of them did it on mobile phones, and their proportion in total mobile Internet users increased from 16.8 per cent to 27.9 per cent.

In addition, China had 168 million online car-rental users up to the end of 2016, an increase of 37.9 per cent (46.16 million) compared to half a year before.

At the same time, China had a total of 470 million online payment users up to June 2016, an increase of 31.2 per cent year on year. Moreover, the utilization ratio of mobile payment increased from 57.7% to 67.5%. The rapid expansion of online payment in offline scenarios has significantly enriched offline consumption payment scenarios, and 50.3 per cent of Chinese internet users would turn to mobile payment when shopping in offline stores.

WeChat Moments and Qzone are social networking services based on instant messaging. As of December 2016, their utilization ratio had reached 85.8 per cent and 67.8 per cent, respectively. By strengthening the role of celebrities, internet celebrities, media content ecosystem and diverting resources in short-video and mobile live broadcasting, Weibo’s utilization ratio has been gradually rising and reached 37.1 per cent at the end of 2016.

Internet TV series also boomed in 2016. From January 1st to November 30th, 4,430 TV series (16,938 episodes) had been registered on online video platforms. Compared to a year ago, the number of internet TV series skyrocketed in 2016

In addition, the report suggests that 32.5 per cent of Chinese internet users (238 million) had conducted charitable activities via the internet. Internet-based new money-raising models, such as charitable crowdfunding and social money-raising activities, are promoting the charitable money-raising process to be more transparent, convenient and diversified.

What’s more, the report shows that up till December 2016, 91 Chinese internet enterprises had listed (domestic or abroad) on the stock market and their total market value had reached 5.4 trillion RMB (around $788.6 billion). Specifically, the total market value of Tencent and Alibaba had reached 3 trillion RMB (around $438.1 billion), accounting for 57 per cent of that of all Chinese public-listed internet enterprises.

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Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at PAGE TO PAGE), working for TMTpost.

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