Virtual China

CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) recently released (in pdf and ppt) its 17th Survey on the current development of the Chinese Internet. These twice-yearly surveys are Chinese governmental basic data on the Chinese ‘net. It’s not translated into English yet. In the meantime, some of the topline results:

• 111 million internet users
• ~ 65 million are broadband users
• Large gap between urban and rural Internet use, with ~91 million urban users and 17% penetration, vs. ~19 million rural users and less than 3% penetration
• large gap between internet use in eastern China vs. western China
• 18% of users accessing the web via laptop computers
• Internet users average 16 hours/week online, a 20% increase [since the last survey in mid-05? unclear]