China Internet Usage Grows; Restrictions Still Remain

[image error]According to a new report, the number of Internet users in China has moved past 500 million, with millions of new web surfers going online to utilize mobile phones and tablet computers.

The China Internet Network Information Centre (CINNC) reports the number of those using the Internet on the mainland grew to 513 million last month, a 12 percent jump from the previous year. Those using handheld devices increased 17.5 percent over the previous year to 356 million.

The 513 million figure ranks higher than the population of many countries. Keeping that in perspective, however, Internet penetration in the U.S. has reached nearly 80 percent, while in China it has yet to hit 40 percent. China's 513 million figure is directly tied into the fact that the country's population is more than 1.3 billion.

Meantime, it comes as no surprise that China's communist government continues to attempt to block individual access to material it believes is counter-productive to the government, along with pornographic material.

China's governmental control of the Internet is displayed in a number of different fashions, such as last summer when a bullet train crash killed 40 people.

With many citizens going online to criticize the government's response to the accident, officials moved to increase their control over popular micro blogs. Micro blog services have been told they must more closely oversee content postings, removing objectionable items; news media were prohibited from reporting online material without firsthand verification.

Despite Internet crack downs, many Chinese have found ways around the tight controls, with more than 200 million using weibos, micro blogs much like Twitter that can work around the country's challenging censors.

According to one researcher, "Chinese authorities are more and more concerned about the Internet because it's such a decentralized medium and so difficult to control. Since 2005, the whole focus of control of information has shifted from traditional media to the Internet." Among the sites banned in the country are Facebook and YouTube.

One way Chinese officials are trying to exert more power over micro blogs is by requiring weibo users to register with their real names, therefore making it less difficult to track them down.

Despite the crackdowns on Internet usage in China, many software and Internet service providers are seeing dollar signs when it comes to marketing items in the world's most populous country. The trick becomes getting the right products and services there before the next guy.

With so much opportunity waiting in China, it behooves online marketers to be plugged in.

Photo credit: buzzom.com

 

 

 

 

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