The new December 2007 figures of the official internet beancounters CNNIC are around, here noted by the China Tech News, and the country's internet usage has broken a few new records. The total number of internet users has gone up to 210 million, an increase with 72 million over 2007 or 30 percent more.
Those figures were pretty common in the second half of the 1990s when the government decided to open up China for the internet and when its base was pretty low. Those growth percentages eased downwards as the total number of internet users grew. Only in the past few years, and exspecially in the second half of 2007, growth has picked up. The total number of Chinese internet users has gone up in one year time from twelve to sixteen percent of the total population. Initial internet usage focused for the larger number on the larger cities, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but now a wide range of second- and third-tier second are joining the frenzy.
It will also mean that the growing pains will continue. Especially veteran users have been very unhappy with the millions of newcomers each year who make it very hard to develop standards or codes of conduct that are shared by a larger number of participants. Even when the current growth continues, it might take another decade before the Chinese internet market showns signs of saturation.
Remarkable is also the fast growth of mobile internet users. In December 2007 more than 50 million wireless users were recorded at a time when 3G was still far away and mobile internet flaky at best. When 3G takes off against for Chinese affordable prices - as is expected - mobile internet might take over conventional connections very fast.
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