MIIT: Mobile Phones Now Most Popular Way to Access Web in China
The folks at China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) are always churning out interesting statistics about the internet, and here’s the latest: mobile phones are now the most popular way people access the internet in China, beating out traditional computers for the first time ever as of the end of June.
MIIT rep Zhang Xinsheng also revealed specifics; as of late June, China had more than 538 million total internet users, and 388 million total mobile internet users. And in case you’re wondering just how far China has come, Zhang pointed out that China’s internet users have increased 867 times compared to the number of net users the country boasted 15 years ago.
Also interesting: according to Zhang, migrant workers are starting to become netizens too thanks to internet-ready phones; more than 1.4 million migrant workers have accessed the internet via their mobiles. Rural netizens are also on the rise, with rural internet users totaling 146 million, or 27 percent of China’s total internet user base.
Zhang also said that mobile messaging apps are growing with impressive speed; that’s news that shouldn’t surprise any of our readers who have been following the expansion of mobile apps like Sina Weibo and Tencent’s WeChat.
Zhang氏は、モバイルメッセージングアプリの急速的に普及したことも理由に挙げる。しかし、Sina WeiboやTencentのWeChatのようなアプリの普及展開を目指している我々の読者にとっては、さほど驚くべきニュースではない。
Zhang氏はこうも言っている。
「携帯電話でのメッセージングアプリは目を見張るスピードで成長してきている。Sina Weibo and Tencent’s WeChatのような携帯電話アプリの広がりを追っているような我々の読者にとっては、携帯電話を利用したネットユーザーが劇的に増えてきているというニュースは驚くには値しない。」