Internet use and culture in China

For some months now I’ve been taking more interest in scanning Internet use trends in China. Intuitively, I feel that China will be a centre of innovation and influence in the emerging Internet culture globally. The latest stats reported in the China Web2.0 Review reinforce my view.

At 253 million users, China now has more Internet users than any other country. Internet users with broadband amounted to 214 million. Sure, there is some way to go in terms of penetration overall, but the growth rate remains high (43 million new users were added in the first half of 2008 ) and the number of mobile Internet users now stands at 73 million. Mobile Internet growth rates exceed PC rates.

Overall use figures in themselves are of considerable interest. But it’s the social change indicators in the use stats that are more fascinating to me. 107 million users (or 42% of all users) have blogs or ’spaces’ online. Many users write posts on social networking sites. 70 million updated their blogs or spaces in the last six months. Over 80% of users listen to music online, use IM and read news online.

To me these figures say that Chinese Internet users have taken to the Participative Web in a big way. I have no doubt that innovative Web applications like Goofy2 foreshadow much more innovation from China downstream.

Internet TV slow to catch on despite BBC iPlayer – Times Online

Times Online have reported that according to research conducted by Entertainment Media Research (EMR) people still prefer watching scheduled TV over Internet TV. They like to talk about their favorite programs the day after broadcast. The article notes viewers may well shift towards video online with the development of home entertainment systems where content is transferred from PC to TV – and view it on the big screen.

In a related article by Telco 2.0 reported that ISP streaming costs in the UK may have tripled in January 2008, pointing the finger squarly on the BBC’s iPlayer 7-day catch-up service. Their conclusion – the ISP ‘all-you-can-eat’ model is under threat.  The Telco 2.0 article seems to portray a different view from the research reported by EMR i.e. that usage of internet tv is on the up. Telco 2.0 did note that the BBC’s iPlayer is funded by the BBC’s annual license fee, so the businesss model does not need advertising revenue.

In any case, the iPlayer 7-day catch-up model seems like a useful idea to me, and could be seen as a complementary service to broadcast TV (not a substitute) and offer enhanced convenience to BBC viewers.

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