China's internet users make fast more money

Not only poor students in internet cafes

For a media training I'm checking some of the firm assumptions I have on the Chinese internet users. For that purpose I have been comparing the CNNIC reports that were published in January 2002 and January 2007 for the demographics of the internet users. Some interesting conclusions.

First, everybody knows the basic figures: the number of internet users has grown dramatically, from 33 million in 2002 to 137 million in 2007. But despite those changes, many of the demographics remain rather stable. The division between men and women, married and unmarried. Also the educational level does not show a big shift in terms of percentages. The percentage of high school students goes up a bit but not dramatically.

What is shifting dramatically is the earning capacity of internet users. I have clustered the income-groups CNNIC into four and then you get this (annual income in Rmb per month)

• - 1,000 drops from 61.2% to 47.6%


• 1,001-4,000 goes up from 35.4% to 43.3%


• 4,001-10,000 goes up from 2.6% to 7.5%


• 10,001+goes up from 0.8% to 1.6%

That means that the argument for not investing in online marketing tools is still there: a fairly large amount of internet users in China has very little to spend. But the number of people that does make money increases fast, both as a percentage of the internet users and of course also in absolute numbers. Nine percent of 137 million people earn more than 4,000 Rmb per month and that is only bound to go up faster.