In 2014, China achieved the 20th anniversary of full-function access to the Internet. In the past twenty years, the construction level of Internet infrastructure such as backbone network and broadband network in China, and the number of Internet basic resources such as IP number, domain name number and website number have all entered the international advanced ranks; In addition, the number of Internet users in China surpassed that of the United States in June 2008, ranking first in the world.
The number of netizens has increased steadily, but the imbalance between urban and rural areas is still significant.
According to the 35th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China published by CNNIC, as of December 2014, the number of netizens in China reached 649 million, and the Internet penetration rate was 47.9%. From 1997 to 2000, with Yinghaiwei Company opening its Internet service to ordinary families, and then Sohu.com and People.com went online, the Internet development in China entered an active period, and the number of netizens doubled, with the growth rates of 238.7%, 323.8% and 152.8% in the three years from 1998 to 2000 respectively. In the first decade of the new century, with the gradual recovery of the Internet in China from the bursting of the bubble and entering the web2.0 era, the continuous innovation of Internet applications has driven the total number of netizens to continue to grow at a high speed; Since 2009, the growth rate of netizens has continued to slow down and entered a platform period.
picture one 1997-2004yearThe scale of netizens in China
Judging from the absolute scale of Internet users, China is undoubtedly the largest Internet country, but judging from the structure of Internet users, there is still a problem of unbalanced regional development in China’s Internet popularization. Although the number of netizens in rural areas has also maintained a rapid growth rate, its Internet penetration rate is still far lower than that in urban areas. As of December 2014, the Internet penetration rate in rural areas was 28.8%, an increase of only 0.7 percentage points compared with 2013. The gap between urban and rural Internet access in China makes the vast rural residents "on the unfortunate side of this gap, which means that they have few opportunities to participate in our new information-based economy and online education, training, shopping, entertainment and communication" (US Department of Commerce). Internet should be one of the powerful tools to break the urban-rural dual system. Solving the digital access gap between urban and rural areas will help to fundamentally solve the problem of unbalanced regional development in China.
picture 2 2007-2014The scale of rural netizens and rural Internet penetration rate in China
Mobile devices have penetrated into the lives of netizens, and network TV has become a new hot spot.
The whole industry in cmnet has maintained a strong development trend. From 2006 to 2009, the penetration rate of mobile Internet increased rapidly, and the number of mobile Internet users doubled. After 2009, the scale of mobile Internet users has increased steadily. In the context of the slowdown in the overall growth rate of Internet users, mobile Internet access has become the main driving force for the overall scale of Internet users in China. By 2012, mobile phones have become the largest internet terminal for Chinese netizens; In 2014, the proportion of Internet users using mobile phones reached 85.8%, and the proportion using tablet computers reached 34.8%. In 2014, China’s telecom industry officially entered the 4G era. The 4G network will greatly promote the development of the mobile Internet in the future with faster communication speed, lower tariffs and carrying capacity for large data transmission.
picture three 1999-2014The scale of rural netizens and rural Internet penetration rate in China
In 2014, Internet companies launched fierce competition around the "living room", and TV is becoming an important Internet access device. According to CNNIC data, as of December 2014, the proportion of netizens using TV to access the Internet has reached 15.6%. In the same period, according to the data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the number of IPTV users in China has reached 33.636 million. As a mixed form of traditional TV and OTT TV, network TV will be further integrated with terminals, making TV a comprehensive digital home terminal with communication, Internet and TV functions. If the mobile phone is the mobile revolution of the traditional Internet, then network TV will become the living room revolution of the network society. (Author: China Internet Network Information Center analyst Gao Shuang)