Abstract

1. Basic Information

◇　As of December 2013, China had 618 million Internet users, with 53.58 million new ones. The Internet penetration rate was 45.8%, a growth of 3.7 percentage points compared with the end of 2012.

◇　As of December 2013, China had 500 million mobile phone Internet users, a growth of 80.09 million compared with that at the end of 2012. Among all the Internet users, the proportion of those using mobile phones to access the Internet rose to 81.0%.

◇　As of December 2013, China's rural Internet users accounted for 28.6% of total Chinese netizens, reaching 177 million, up by 21.01 million compared with the figure in 2012.

◇　Of all Internet users in China, those who surfed the Internet via desktop computers and laptops accounted for 69.7% and 44.1% respectively, slightly down by 0.8 percentage point and 1.8 percentage points respectively compared to 2012. Those who used mobile phones to surf the Internet grew rapidly from 74.5% to 81.0%, an increase of 6.5 percentage points.

◇　There were totally 18.44 million domain names in China. Specifically, the .cn domain names increased by 44.2% over the same period of last year to 10.83 million, and accounted for 58.7% of total Chinese domain names. As of December 2013, China had 3.2 million websites, increasing by 0.52 million in the entire year with a growth rate of 19.4%.

2. Trends and Features

Limited growth of the Internet users in China, and surfing the Internet with mobile phones remaining the main impetus of the growth of Internet users

As of December 2013, China had 618 million Internet users, with 53.58 million new ones. The Internet penetration rate was 45.8%, up by 3.7 percentage points over the end of 2012. The penetration growth basically complied with the figure in 2012, and the overall growth of Internet users continuously slowed down. In the meantime, mobile Internet users continued to maintain a good momentum of growth, reaching 500 million, with an annual growth rate of 19.1%. Mobile phones continued to maintain their number one position as the Internet terminal. The high percentage of new Internet users surfing the Internet with mobile phones also indicates the boosting role of mobile phones in the growth of Internet users. Of the new Internet users in 2013, up to 73.3% surfed the Internet with mobile phones, a percentage far higher than that of the Internet users using other devices. Mobile phones are still the main driving force for the growth of Internet users in China.

Internet development in China transforming from quantity to quality

The Internet penetration rate in China was 45.8% as of December 2013, up by 3.7 percentage points over the end of 2012, and continued its slow pace of growth since 2011. On the whole, the theme of Internet development in China has transformed from “increase of penetration” to “deepened degree of usage”. The policies and environmental changes in recent years have also provided strong support for the depth of usage. Firstly, the national supporting policy has been issued. In 2013, the State Council issued Some Comments of the State Council on Facilitating Information Consumption and Expanding Domestic Demand, indicating the role of Internet in the overall economy and society. Secondly, the Internet has better combined itself with traditional economy, such as its good applications in shopping, logistics, payment or even finance. Thirdly, Internet applications have gradually changed people's lifestyle, exerting a great influence on people's basic necessities of life.

High-traffic mobile phone applications developing rapidly

In 2013, high-traffic required services, such as mobile phone videos and music, grew rapidly. Specifically, the users of mobile phone videos grew significantly. The number of users who used mobile phones to watch videos online or download videos was 247 million in China as of December 2013, an increase of 112 million over the end of 2012, or a growth rate of up to 83.8%. Mobile videos have risen to the fifth major application of mobile Internet. The utilization rate growth of the mobile high-traffic applications is mainly attributed to three factors. Firstly, users have tended to use mobile phones as their Internet access devices, and the overall Internet users have a continuously lower computer utilization rate. Secondly, the basic environment of usage has improved. For example, the development of smartphones and wireless networks has attracted more users to surf the Internet with mobile phones. Finally, the Internet access cost has reduced, such as lower Internet access expenses, monthly package cooperation between video operators and Internet operators, and other measures which have helped reduced the usage threshold for mobile videos.

Comprehensive platform applications based on social networking growing fast

In 2013, Internet applications such as microblogs, social networking sites and forums had a lower utilization rate, while platform applications related to instant messaging based on social contact elements developed steadily. The detailed figures show that the microblog users dropped by 27.83 million, and the utilization rate dropped by 9.2 percentage points in 2013. The overall instant messaging users, however, grew to 532 million with the boost of the mobile end, up by 64.4 million over the end of 2012 and with a utilization rate of up to 86.2%, maintaining the number one position. The mobile instant messaging developed rapidly, because on the one hand, instant messaging is well integrated with mobile communication, and on the other hand, such applications as information sharing, communication, payment and finance have been added based on social contact elements, which has greatly increased user stickiness.

Sluggish growth of online game users vs. rapid growth of mobile game users

The growth of online game users slowed down significantly in 2013. The utilization rate by Internet users dropped from 59.5% in 2012 to 54.7%. The number of online game users was 338 million, with an increase of 2.34 million only. Different from the overall size of online game users, the mobile-end online game users grew rapidly. The number of mobile game users in China reached 215 million as of December 2013, representing a growth of 75.94 million or 54.5% over the end of 2012. The sluggish growth of users in the overall industry and the rapid growth of mobile-end game users indicate that more users are shifting from the computer end to the mobile end in the game industry, and that the impact of mobile-end online games on the PC-end online games begins to emerge.

Sustained growth of online shoppers, with group purchase as the highlight

Business applications continue to maintain a high development speed, which is particularly prominent in online shopping, as well as the similar group purchase. In 2013, the number of online shoppers in China reached 302 million, with a utilization rate of up to 48.9% and representing a growth of 6.0 percentage points over 2012. The number of online group purchase users reached 141 million, with a utilization rate of 22.8% which represents a growth of 8.0 percentage points over 2012. With an annual growth of users by 68.9%, it is the most rapidly growing business application. The rapid development of business applications is closely related to the improvement of payment and logistics and the boosting of the whole environment, while the “reverse” growth of group purchase means that group purchase has entered a rational development period after the savage growth.

Chapter 1
Introduction to the Survey

1. Survey Methodology

1.1　Survey on Individual Internet Users

1.1.1　Survey Population

China's permanent residents six years of age or above who have residence fixed-line telephones(including home phones, PHS and dormitory telephones) or mobile phones

◇　Sample size

There were 60,000 survey samples in total, including 30,000 for residential fixed-line telephones and the other 30,000 for mobile phones, covering 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government on the Chinese mainland.

◇　Division of survey population

The survey population can be divided into three categories:

Subpopulation A: Survey subpopulation using residence fixed-line telephones (including residents with home phones, PHS users, students with dormitory telephones, and other users with dormitory telephones);

Subpopulation B: Survey subpopulation with mobile phones;

Subpopulation C: Survey subpopulation with both residence fixed-line telephones and mobile phones (there is an overlap between subpopulation A and subpopulation B, and the overlapped part is subpopulation C), C = A∩B.

1.1.2　Sampling Methods

CNNIC surveys subpopulations A, B and C. Double sampling is adopted for the survey so as to cover as many Internet users as possible. The first sampling frame is subpopulation A, the people with residence fixed-line telephones. The second sampling frame is subpopulation B, the people with mobile phones.

For the survey population with residence fixed-line telephones, stratified two-stage sampling is adopted. To ensure the sufficient representativeness of samples, the whole country is divided into 31 tiers according to the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, and the sampling is made independently at each tier.

The self-weighted sampling method is adopted for each provincial-level administrative region. The sample size is allocated for each area, city and prefecture (including the governed districts and counties) in accordance with the proportion of the people at the age of six or above in the city covered by residence fixed-line telephones in the total population covered in the whole region.

Sampling in subpopulation B is similar to that in subpopulation A. The whole country is divided into 31 tiers according to the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, and sampling is made independently in each tier. Samples are allocated in accordance with the proportion of the residents in each area or city to make the sample allocation in each provincial-level administrative region conform to the self-weighting method.

To ensure the residence fixed-line telephones are taken with almost the same probability in each area, city or prefecture, which means the local number with more residence fixed-line telephones will more likely be taken; and to make the phone visit more feasible, the residence fixed-line telephone numbers in each area, city and prefecture are taken according to the following procedures:

The survey of the subpopulation with mobile phones is to take all mobile phone local numbers in each area, city and prefecture; then certain 4-digit numbers are generated randomly based on the valid sample size in each area, city or prefecture, and then combined with the mobile phone numbers in each area, city or prefecture to form a number library (local number plus the random 4-digit number); randomly order the number library; dial and visit the randomly ordered number library. Survey of the subpopulation with fixed-line telephones is similar to that of the subpopulation with mobile phones: a random number is generated and combined with the local number to form a telephone number, and then such number is dialed and visited. To avoid repeated sampling, only residence fixed-line telephones are visited.

1.1.3　Survey Modes

The computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) system is adopted for the survey.

1.1.4　Differences between Survey Population and Targeted Population

A study for the subpopulation who are not covered by telephones, conducted by CNNIC in 2005, shows that Internet users are very few in this subpopulation. Currently, the subpopulation is downsizing gradually with the development of our telecom industry. In this survey, there is an assumption—Internet users who are not covered by fixed-line telephones and mobile phones are negligible.

1.2　Online Surveys

The online survey focuses on the use of typical Internet applications. CNNIC conducted an online survey from December 10 to 31, 2013. The questionnaire was placed on the CNNIC website, and the links were available on China's major websites including government media ones. Internet users voluntarily participated in and filled out the questionnaire. After the questionnaires were returned, questionnaires' validity would be verified and invalid questionnaires were sieved out by special techniques.

1.3　Automatic Online Search and Data Report

Automatic online search is used to conduct technical statistics about quantity of domain names and websites, and their geographical distribution. Statistical data for reporting mainly include the number of IP addresses and international Internet gateway bandwidth.

1.3.1　Total Number of IP Addresses

The data of IP addresses counted by provincial-level administrative region come from the IP address databases of Asia-Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC) and CNNIC. Registered data in each database, which can be distinguished by the region where the addresses belong, can be added respectively by provincial-level administrative region to generate data of each region. As address allocation is a dynamic process, the statistical data are only for reference. In the meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as the Chinese department responsible for the administration of IP addresses, will require IP address allocation organizations (such as China Telecom) to report the IP addresses they own biannually. To ensure the accuracy of IP data, CNNIC will compare and verify APNIC statistical data with the reported data to confirm the final quantity of IP addresses.

1.3.2　Total Number of Domain Names and Websites in China

Total number of domain names and websites in China can be derived from:

The number of domain names: The numbers of .cn and .中国domain names come from the CNNIC database; and the number of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) for China comes from the data released by WebHosting. Info, a domain name statistical agency.

The number of websites: It is worked out by CNNIC according to the lists of domain names. The lists of .cn and .中国domain names come from the CNNIC database, while the list of gTLDs comes from relevant international domain name registries.

1.3.3　International Internet Gateway Bandwidth

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology can regularly obtain the number of total gateway bandwidths of Internet connecting Chinese carriers with other countries and regions through a reporting system of telecom enterprises. The reported data are included in the Report.

2. Definitions of Terms in the Report

Internet User or Netizen: China's residents six years of age or above who have used the Internet in the past six months.

Mobile Phone Internet User: Internet users who have used mobile phones to access and surf the Internet in the past six months, but not limited to those surfing the Internet via mobile phones only.

Computer Internet User: Internet users who have used computers to access and surf the Internet in the past six months, but not limited to those surfing the Internet via computers only.

Rural Internet User: Internet users who have mainly lived in China's rural areas in the past six months.

Urban Internet User: Internet users who have mainly lived in China's urban areas in the past six months.

IP Address: As basic resources on the Internet, IP addresses function to identify online computers, servers and other devices connected to the Internet. Connection with the Internet can be realized only when an IP address (in any form) is acquired.

Domain Name: A domain name in this Report only refers to the English domain name, which is a string comprised of numbers, English letters, and hyphens (-) and separated by dots (.). It is a hierarchical structural Internet address identifier corresponding to the IP address. Common domain names are divided into two categories: country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), such as the domain names ended with .cn which represents China; and gTLDs, such as the domain names ended with .com, .net, and .org.

Website: It refers to a website with a domain name itself or www. plus domain name as the web address, including the websites registered under China's .cn and gTLDs. The registrant of the website is within the territory of P. R. China. For example, for the domain name of cnnic.cn, it has only one website and the corresponding web address is cnnic.cn or www.cnnic.cn. Other web addresses with the domain names such as whois.cnnic.cn and mail.cnnic.cn as the suffix are regarded as different channels of the website.

Scope of Survey: Unless otherwise expressly indicated, data in this Report only refer to those for the Chinese mainland, excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Deadline of Survey Data: The deadline of the statistical survey data is December 31, 2013.

Chapter 2
Size and Structure of Internet Users

1. Size of Internet Users

1.1　Overall Size of Internet Users

As of December 2013, China had 618 million Internet users, with a total of 53.58 million new ones. The Internet penetration rate reached 45.8%, up by 3.7 percentage points over the previous year. Growth of the population of Internet users continued to slow down.

The growth of the size of Internet users in China in recent years is mainly attributed to the following four factors: Firstly, the Chinese government has formulated a series of policies and principles in the informatization field, and continuously strengthened construction of basic network facilities, providing good basic network conditions for Internet access. Secondly, operators and major manufacturers have actively facilitated the development of Internet applications, sped up penetration of Internet applications into social life, such as taking a taxi and making a payment, better combined online applications with offline applications, and attracted more people to use the Internet. Thirdly, traditional media and new media have strengthened interaction, increasing the awareness of the entire society about the Internet, and boosting more people to use the Internet. Fourthly, the social networking of network applications and the convenience of instant messaging have expanded the impact of Internet users on non-Internet users while increasing Internet user stickiness, and facilitated non-Internet users to become Internet users. All these factors have jointly boosted the growth of Internet users, especially the continuous increase of mobile phone Internet users. Of the new Internet users in 2013, up to 73.3% surfed the Internet through their mobile phones, a percentage far higher than that of the netizens using other devices, which means mobile phones are still the main driving force of the growth of Internet users in China.

With the increasing saturation of the Internet penetration, the theme of Internet development in China has transformed from “increase of penetration” to “deepened degree of usage”. The policies and environmental changes in recent years have also provided a strong guarantee for the depth of usage. Firstly, the national guaranteeing policy has been issued. In 2013, the State Council issued Some Comments of the State Council on Facilitating Information Consumption and Expanding Domestic Demand, affirming the role of Internet in the overall economy and society. Secondly, the Internet has better combined itself with traditional economy, such as its good applications in shopping, logistics, payment or even finance. Thirdly, Internet applications have led to brand new social lifestyles, exerting a significant influence on people's lives.

The analysis of non-netizens' future Internet access intention shows that in 2013, 11.9% of non-Internet users said they would definitely or probably surf the Internet in the coming six months, which is similar to the figure by the end of 2012, and indicates that potential Internet users with Internet access willingness among non-Internet users have gradually turned themselves into Internet users; 13.7% of non-Internet users said they were not sure whether they would surf the Internet in the future, a figure slightly higher than that at the end of 2012. The percentage of those who would definitely not or probably not surf the Internet dropped slightly, which indicates that those users who have no Internet access willingness among non-Internet users have begun to have such willingness, and these people will also become the important source of the growth of Internet users in the next phase.

Gradual improvement of Internet infrastructure, convenience of network access and decrease of Internet terminal costs have kept reducing the factors which hinder non-Internet users from surfing the Internet, such as network devices and conditions, while the percentage of the factors of “too old or too young” and “having no knowledge of computers and networks” have kept increasing. This indicates, on the one hand, that it will be more difficult for increasing Internet penetration in the future, and the population susceptible to transformation have become increasingly saturate, and on the other hand, that the ability to use ICT (information and communications technology) is still the focus of further Internet penetration, and more efforts should be put into Internet education and popularization in the future.

Surfing the Internet with mobile phones will still be the important factor that boosts the growth of Internet users in China. Mobile phones have a lower technical threshold compared with computers, and are an important way for the Internet to penetrate into rural areas and the low-income population. In the course of popularization of surfing the Internet with mobile phones, operators will still play their boosting role, and facilitate mobile phone users to transform to mobile Internet users via network packages and promotion of 3G numbers. For residents in rural areas and other relatively backward areas, more applications related to rural life should be developed, while Internet access via mobile phones is promoted, so as to increase the interest of rural residents in the Internet and facilitate them to use the Internet.

On August 1, 2013, China's State Council printed and distributed the Broadband China Strategy and Implementation Plan, which emphasizes better strategic guidance and systematic deployment to promote rapid and healthy development of the country's broadband infrastructure; more efforts in Fiber to the Home; access to broadband in rural areas; and broadband access for public interest organizations. It is foreseeable that construction of basic network facilities will continue to be enhanced, and the service capability of network infrastructure will be improved in the future. The all-inclusive and multidimensional network access support will boost the sustained growth of Internet users in China and the further penetration of network applications, and will facilitate technological developments and application innovations of the Internet in China.

1.2　Size of Mobile Phone Internet Users

As of December 2013, China had 500 million mobile phone Internet users, a growth of 80.09 million compared with the figure at the end of 2012. Among all Chinese Internet users, the proportion of those using mobile phones to access the Internet rose to 81.0% from 74.5% at the end of 2012, and the number of China's mobile phone Internet users grew steadily.

The size of mobile phone Internet users have continued to grow because the popularization of 3G, development of wireless networks and falling prices of smartphones have laid a good foundation for Internet access via mobile phones, facilitating Internet users to use various mobile phone applications. Those who have limited network or terminal access, in particular, have been provided with the possibility of accessing the Internet. According to the data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China shipped 348 million smartphones from January to October 2013, and the sales grew rapidly; the number of 3G mobile phone users reached 386 million in November 2013, a growth of 154 million over the same period of last year. On the other hand, the diversity and deep-going nature of mobile phone application services, especially the new instant messaging tools and lifestyle service applications, have further expanded the impact of Internet access via mobile phones in daily life, and improved the stickiness of mobile phone Internet users while meeting diversified living needs of Internet users.

With the rapid popularization of smart terminals, lower service fees of telecommunication networks and increasingly complete coverage of Wi-Fi, Internet access via mobile phones has become the main impetus for Internet development. It has not only facilitated China's Internet penetration, but also generated more new applications, reconstructed the business mode of traditional industries, and resulted in the rapid growth of the Internet economy.

1.3　Size of Internet Users by Provincial-level Administrative Region

In 2013, the size of Internet users grew by a certain margin across China. Of 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government on the Chinese mainland, 25 had over ten million Internet users, and 13 had an Internet penetration rate which is higher than the national average level, including newly added Qinghai province and Hebei province compared to 2012 whose Internet penetration was 47.8% and 46.5% respectively.

The regional differences of Internet development in China still existed in 2013. The Internet penetration rate was relatively high in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, etc., higher than 65%, and relatively low in Jiangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, etc., lower than 33%. In 2013, Internet users grew the fastest in those provinces with relatively low Internet penetration, such as Jiangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and Henan, while Internet users grew slightly slower in those regions with relatively high Internet penetration, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong. With the increasing popularization of Internet devices and further implementation of the broadband network program, the regional differences in China's Internet development will be further reduced in the future.

1.4　Size of Rural Internet Users

As of December 2013, China's rural Internet users accounted for 28.6% of total Chinese netizens, reaching 177 million, up by 21.01 million compared with the figure in 2012. In 2013, the rate of growth was 13.5% for rural Internet users and 8.0% for urban Internet users, with the gap between urban and rural Internet users continuously narrowing.

Owing to China's urbanization in recent years, the proportion of its rural population in total Chinese population has dropped continuously, but the proportion of its rural Internet users in total Chinese netizens has kept rising, which has reflected the achievement made in the Internet popularization in the country's rural areas. In 2013, the Internet penetration in China's rural areas reached 27.5% and extended the trend of growth since 2012. The gap between urban and rural areas in terms of Internet popularization has further narrowed, and rural areas are still the important impetus for current growth of Chinese Internet users.

2. Attributes of Internet Users

2.1　Sex Structure

As of December 2013, the sex ratio of China's Internet users was 56:44, similar to that of 2012. The sex ratio of Chinese Internet users basically remains stable under the influence of a huge base number of Internet users.

2.2　Age Structure

Internet users aged 20–29 accounted for 31.2%, the largest proportion, of total Chinese netizens as of December 2013, and had a similar structure to that as of the end of 2012. The proportion of low-age and advanced-age Internet users increased slightly in China, meaning that the Internet was becoming more and more popular.

2.3　Educational Background Structure

As of December 2013, China's Internet penetration rate among people with an education background of high school or above attained a comparatively high level, and the growth possibility could be limited in the future. The population with primary school education or below accounted for 11.9% in 2013, slightly rising compared to 2012 and maintaining a growth trend. China's Internet users continue to cover the population with low levels of education.

2.4　Occupational Structure

According to the survey below, students were still the largest group among China's Internet users, accounting for 25.5%. The Internet penetration was high among this group. Self-employed individuals or freelancers were the second largest group among Chinese netizens, accounting for 18.6%. Managers accounted for 2.5% of total Chinese Internet users in companies and enterprises, while non-managerial employees accounted for 11.4%.

2.5　Income Structure

According to the survey below, China's Internet users with a monthly income of 2,001–3,000 yuan and 3,001–5,000 yuan were of the biggest size in the country's total netizens, and accounted for 17.8% and 15.8% respectively. Chinese Internet users with a monthly income of 500 yuan or below and no income accounted for 20.8%.

3. Access Modes

3.1　Internet Access Devices

In 2013, China's netizens using their mobile phones to surf the Internet kept growing, rising from 74.5% to 81.0%, up by 6.5 percentage points, while the proportion of Chinese netizens using desktops or laptops to access the Internet dropped slightly.

3.2　Internet Access Places

In 2013, China's Internet users who accessed the Internet from such locations as homes, cybercafés or schools dropped slightly by 1.9, 3.7 and 4.4 percentage points respectively. Specifically, those who accessed the Internet via computers at school dropped by the largest margin, mainly because the smartphone prices and the network service fees dropped, enabling more students to access the Internet via mobile phones. Diversified Internet access devices and convenient network access have further reduced the proportion of Internet users who use computers to access the Internet.

3.3　Online Duration

In 2013, the online duration of China's netizens per capita per week reached 25.0 hours, an increase of 4.5 hours over the previous year. The online duration of China's Internet users has kept increasing in recent years, especially in 2013 when the online duration increased the most. In 2013, the rapid development of Wi-Fi and 3G networks better satisfied the needs of netizens to use various applications. Particularly the use of large-traffic applications such as videos has increased the netizens' duration of using various applications from the perspective of the depth of app usage. In addition, diversified Internet applications have enabled mobile phone Internet users to shift from relatively simple applications, such as fragmented reading and news, to those applications with long duration and great stickiness, such as social networking and lifestyle service applications, all of which have increased the overall use duration in terms of application coverage.

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(1)　Specifically, a student's income includes living allowances provided by his or her family, the money he or she earns from part-time jobs, scholarships and funds from other sources; a peasant's income includes living allowances provided by his or her children, income from agricultural production, government subsidies and other fund sources; the income of a jobless, laid-off, or unemployed person includes living allowances provided by his or her children, government relief, subsidies, a pension for the disabled or the family of a decedent, the minimum living security fund and other fund sources; the income of a retiree includes living allowances provided by his or her children, a pension and other fund sources.

Chapter 3
Basic Internet Resources

1. An Overview of Basic Resources

As of December 2013, China had 330 million IPv4 addresses and its IPv6 addresses totaled 16,670 blocks/32. There were totally 18.44 million domain names in China. Specifically, .cn domain names increased by 44.2% over the same period of last year to 10.83 million, accounting for 58.7%of total Chinese domain names. There were altogether 3.2 million websites in China, an increase of 19.4% compared with that in the same period of last year. China's international Internet gateway bandwidth reached 3,406,824 Mbps, a year-on-year increase of 79.3%.

2. IP Addresses

As of December 2013, the number of IPv6 addresses in China reached 16,670 blocks/32, a 33.0%growth compared with that in the same period last year, ranking second worldwide.

The total number of IPv4 addresses in China remained basically unchanged, totaling 330 million as of December 2013.

3. Domain Names

Stimulated by an increase in .cn domain names, the total number of China's domain names amounted to 18.44 million, growing by 37.5% compared to the end of last year.

As of December 2013, the number of .cn domain names reached 10.83 million in China, increasing by 44.2% year on year and accounting for 58.7% of total Chinese domain names; and .com domain names were 6.31 million, taking up 34.2%. In addition, the .中国domain names totaled 270,000.

4. Websites

As of December 2013, China had 3.2 million websites.⁽¹⁾ The number increased by 0.52 million in the year 2013 with a growth rate of 19.4%.

5. Web Pages⁽²⁾

As of December 2013, China had 150 billion web pages, a year-on-year increase of 22.2%.

In 2013, both the average number of web pages per website and the average number of bytes per web page kept growing, indicating more diversified content on China's Internet: the average number of web pages per website reached 46,900, an increase of 2.3% over the same period of last year, and the average number of bytes per web page reached 50 KB, an increase of 19.0%.

6. International Internet Gateway Bandwidth

As of December 2013, China's international Internet gateway bandwidth was 3,406,824 Mbps, with an annual growth rate of 79.3%.

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(1)　Websites whose domain name registrants are in China

(2)　Data source: Baidu Online Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.

Chapter 4
Internet Applications of Internet Users

1. Overall Situation of Internet Applications

Facilitated by mobile Internet, network applications that tally with the operating characteristics of mobile phones further grew in 2013. As the number one Internet application, instant messaging had a continuously rising utilization rate, while microblogs and other communication-type applications had a continuously declining utilization rate. E-business applications maintained rapid development, and the size of online shoppers grew significantly. Those applications with high requirements for network traffic and user experience, such as mobile videos or games, had an upward trend of utilization rate.

Rapid development of high-traffic mobile phone applications

In 2013, the services requiring high traffic, such as videos and music on mobile phones, grew rapidly. Specifically, the users of mobile videos grew significantly. The number of users watching or downloading videos online via mobile phones was 247 million in China as of December 2013, an increase of 112 million over the end of 2012, or a growth rate of up to 83.8%. Mobile videos have risen to the fifth major application of mobile Internet. The utilization rate growth of mobile high-traffic applications is mainly attributed to the following three factors. Firstly, users have tended to use mobile phones as their Internet access devices, and the overall Internet users have a continuously lower computer utilization rate. Secondly, the basic environment of usage has improved, such as the development of smartphones and wireless networks. Finally, the Internet access cost has reduced, such as monthly package cooperation between video operators and Internet operators.

Rapid development of comprehensive platform applications based on social networking

In 2013, Internet applications such as microblogs, social networking websites, and forums had a lower utilization rate, while platform applications related to instant messaging based on social networking developed steadily. The detailed figures show that the microblog users dropped by 27.83 million, and the utilization rate dropped by 9.2 percentage points in 2013. The overall instant messaging users, however, grew to 532 million with the boost of mobile ends, up by 64.4 million over the end of 2012 and with a utilization rate of up to 86.2%, maintaining the number one position. The mobile instant messaging developed rapidly, because on the one hand, instant messaging is well integrated with mobile communication, and on the other hand, such applications as information sharing, communication, payment or even finance have been added based on social networking, greatly increasing user stickiness.

Sluggish growth of Internet game users and rapid growth of online game users via mobile phones

In 2013, the growth of Internet game users in China slowed down significantly. The game utilization rate by Internet users dropped from 59.5% in 2012 to 54.7%. The number of Internet game users was 338 million, with an increase of 2.34 million only. Different from the overall size of Internet game users, the mobile-end Internet game users grew rapidly. The number of mobile game users in China reached 215 million as of December 2013, representing a growth of 75.94 million or 54.5% over the end of 2012. The sluggish growth of users in the overall industry and the rapid growth of mobile-end game users indicate that more users are shifting from the computer end to the mobile end in the game industry, and that the impact of mobile-end online games on the PC-end online games begins to emerge.

Sustained growth of online shoppers, with group buying as the highlight

Business applications continue to maintain a high development speed, which is particularly prominent in online shopping as well as the similar group buying. In 2013, the number of online shopping users in China reached 302 million, with a utilization rate of 48.9% and representing a growth of 6.0 percentage points over 2012. The number of online group buying users reached 141 million, with a utilization rate of 22.8%, up by 8.0 percentage points over 2012. With an annual growth of users by 68.9%, group buying is the most rapidly growing business application. The rapid development of business applications is closely related to the improvement of payment and logistics and the boosting of the whole environment, while the “reverse” growth of group buying online means that group buying has entered a rational development period after the savage growth.

1.1　Acquisition of Information

1.1.1　Search Engines

The number of search engine users in China reached 490 million by the end of 2013, representing a growth of 38.56 million or 8.5% compared to the end of 2012, and the utilization rate was 79.3%.

As one of the basic services of the Internet, the search engine industry has become mature, but changes still exist in the industry: at the industry level, search engine enterprises have sped up integration among themselves, and increased their competitiveness through merger, acquisition or other means; at the enterprise level, the growth of mobile phone Internet users has resulted in more fierce competition for the mobile-end entry; at the technological level, the technologies based on such search forms as natural language, voice, images, and two dimensional codes are developing. With the whole search industry in the mature stage, the sustainable development of search engines in the future will also depend on the search result safety and user trust.

1.2　Business Transactions

1.2.1　Online Shopping

As of December 2013, China had 302 million users of online shopping, a growth of 59.87 million or 24.7% over the previous year, and the utilization rate rose from 42.9% to 48.9%.

The growth of online shoppers in 2013 is attributed to the following three factors: Firstly, e-business enterprises have shifted from being “price driven” to being “service driven” and from pure price war to service competition, improving the consumer experience of online shopping. Secondly, the optimization of the whole application environment, such as improvement of the Internet security environment and development of applications like mobile payment and price comparison search, has provided more convenient conditions for online shopping. Finally, the laws and regulations concerning online shopping are being perfected. The government sped up the legislation process for the Internet retail market in 2013. The new Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Consumers has included personal information protection and tracing responsibility concerning online shopping, which has protected the basic rights and interests of consumers during their online shopping.

1.2.2　Group Buying

Group buying has become the most rapidly growing Internet application. The number of users of online group buying in China reached 141 million as of December 2013, a year-on-year increase of 68.9%, and the utilization rate increased to 22.8%, a year-on-year increase of 8 percentage points.

The rapid development of mobile ends has boosted the rapid growth of group buying, and the utilization rate of mobile group buying rose from 4.6% at the end of 2012 to 16.3%. The local living services, as represented by group buying, have deeply tallied with such functions as mobile phone positioning. In 2013, the group buying service was further integrated with maps, travel, information service for living, and other fields at the mobile ends, and rapidly penetrated into Internet users, and the entire industry was also developing in depth and breadth toward the offline lifestyle services.

Group buying has returned to a rational development path after undergoing an eruptive growth in the industry. On the one hand, professional group buying websites have increased their operation efficiency through product positioning and personnel optimization, including such measures as selection of high-yield products, elevation of service quality and improvement of trust, greatly increasing users' willingness to use the websites. On the other hand, e-business platforms such as online shopping and travel-booking platforms have introduced and attached importance to group buying, further boosting the development of the group buying industry, thanks to the advantages of platform enterprises in user size and trust.

1.2.3　Online Payment

The number of users of online payment in China reached 260 million as of December 2013, representing a growth of 39.55 million or 17.9% annually, with the utilization rate increasing to 42.1%.

The rapid growth of China's online payment users is mainly attributed to the following three factors: Firstly, the growth of Internet users in the Internet-based business applications has directly boosted the development of online payment. Secondly, a number of platforms have introduced the payment function, expanding payment channels. Thirdly, the offline economy and online payment have been better combined, leading to the change in the way of payment by users. For example, Alipay is used to pay taxi fares.

1.2.4　Travel Booking⁽¹⁾

The number of Internet users in China booking air tickets, hotel rooms, train tickets and travel itineraries on the Internet reached 181 million as of December 2013, representing a growth of 69.1 million or 61.9% annually, with the utilization rate increasing to 29.3%. In 2013, the Internet users who booked train tickets, air tickets, hotels and travel itineraries online accounted for 24.6%, 12.1%, 10.2% and 6.3% respectively. The users who booked train tickets online grew the fastest by 10.6 percentage points, becoming the main contributor to the growth of online travel booking users.

The growth of online travel booking users is mainly attributed to the following four factors: Firstly, it is the effect of joint work by the national economy and travel demand. Studies have shown that when the GDP per capita reaches 5,000 U. S. dollars, the tourism industry has stepped into the mature tourist economy. In 2012, China achieved a GDP per capita of more than 6,000 U. S. dollars, entering a diversified development stage featuring sightseeing, leisure and vacation. The travel booking demands of residents were fully released. Secondly, rich information on scenic spots on the travel booking websites, practicability of travel strategies provided by the media, as well as convenience of payment have greatly improved the user experience in online travel booking. Thirdly, further utilization of the Internet by users, marketing and promotion by enterprises, and a wide range of mobile applications have facilitated offline booking⁽²⁾ users to progressively shift to online booking.

1.3　Communication

1.3.1　Instant Messaging

The number of instant messaging users in China reached 532 million as of December 2013, representing a growth of 64.4 million or 13.8% annually, compared to the end of 2012. The utilization rate of instant messaging was 86.2%, up by 3.3 percentage points over the end of 2012 and ranking first. As one of the most fundamental applications for Internet users, instant messaging has limited space for direct creation of commercial values, and is focused more on the development of value-added services.

1.3.2　Blog/Personal Space

The number of China's users of blog and personal space reached 437 million as of December 2013, representing an increase of 63.59 million over the end of 2012. A total of 70.7% of the Internet users used blog and personal space, up by 4.6 percentage points compared with that at the end of 2012. Blog users in China accounted for 14.2% of the country's total Internet users by the end of 2013, a decrease of 10.6 percentage points from the end of 2012, and both the user size and user activities kept declining. According to CNNIC's China Internet Data Platform (www.cnidp.cn), the number of blog visits decreased by 27.2% from the previous year, and the total browsed web pages declined by 22.3%in the second half of 2013.

1.3.3　Microblogs

In 2013, there was a turning point in the microblog development, and both the user size and utilization rate dropped sharply. As of December 2013, the number of microblog users in China reached 281 million, representing a decrease of 27.83 million or 9.0% from the end of 2012. The utilization rate of Internet users using microblogs reached 45.5%, down by 9.2 percentage points from the end of the previous year. The microblog development is not optimistic: on the one hand, commercialization based on the marketing through social networking networks is not satisfactory with limited profitability; on the other hand, the impact of the competitors has resulted in decreased microblog users.

1.3.4　Social Networking Websites

The number of users of social networking websites in China reached 278 million by the end of 2013, and the utilization rate was 45.0%, down by 3.8 percentage points from the end of 2012. Though users' utilization rate of social networking websites has dropped in recent years, social networking has become the basic elements of Internet applications. For example, such services as online shopping, games and videos have introduced social networking one after another to boost their development.

1.4　Online Entertainment

1.4.1　Online Games

As of December 2013, China had a total of 338 million online game users, and the utilization rate dropped from 59.5% in 2012 to 54.7%. The growth of online game users was only 2.34 million compared to the previous year, showing a limited space of growth. However, different from the overall size of online game users, the mobile game users have shown a trend of rapid growth, indicating that China's users in the online game industry have further shifted to the mobile ends.

1.4.2　Online Literature

The number of online literature users in China reached 274 million as of December 2013, representing a growth of 40.97 million or 17.6% over the end of 2012. The utilization rate of online literature was 44.4%, up by 3 percentage points over the end of 2012.

Gradual improvement of the development environment for online literature is attributed to the following two factors: on the one hand, more efforts have been put into copyright protection to promote healthy development of the online literature industry. The policy details of the 18th CPC Central Committee's Third Plenary Session have laid stress on protection of intellectual property rights and copyrights, and put more efforts to combat piracy against online literature, helping increase the profitability of enterprises with genuine online literature. On the other hand, people's acceptance of online literature has increased the value of online literary works and thus increased the profitability of online literature. The mode of profit making has further expanded to such industries as games, cartoons, film and television from the modes of user payment and offline publication in the early stage.

1.4.3　Online Videos

The number of online video users in China reached 428 million as of December 2013, representing a growth of 56.37 million or 15.2% over the end of the previous year. The utilization rate of online videos was 69.3%, up by 3.4 percentage points over the end of the previous year.

Online video users continue to show a trend of rapid growth, which is attributed to the improvement of the following aspects: Firstly, the network construction and video devices have provided better service conditions for online videos. Secondly, online videos have richer content which then attracts more Internet users to watch videos online. Finally, the deep cooperation between online videos and traditional TV media has boosted the consumption of online videos.

In 2013, great changes took place in the online video industry in China. At the strategic level, video websites put more efforts in merger, acquisition and integration, and multi-industry, online and offline integration occurred, keeping changing the layout of the online video industry. At the product level, video enterprises not only optimized and upgraded their PC-end and mobile-end products, but also strengthened their business related to living room entertainment, and around home entertainment launched hardware products such as set-top boxes, routers and Internet TVs related to online videos, in an attempt to win the “scrabbling for the living room”. At the website content level, many video enterprises on the one hand strengthened development of self-made plays in order to reduce copyright purchase costs and minimize losses, and on the other hand bought more offline hit TV series in order to attract new customers and increase the advertising income.

2. Internet Applications of Mobile Phone Internet Users

In 2013, the overall mobile Internet industry in China maintained a strong momentum of development, the features of mobile terminals were further shown, and application development in the industry presented new characteristics. Specifically, communication applications were still the mainstream mobile applications, ranking first among all Chinese applications in terms of user size and utilization rate, but the users of mobile instant messaging accounted for the vast majority, and the utilization rate of microblogs, social networking websites and forums dropped to some extent. Leisure and entertainment applications developed rapidly, and the users of mobile games, videos and music grew by a large margin with a good momentum of growth. Mobile e-business applications had relatively low penetration, but the utilization rate of all applications in the field of e-commerce showed rapid growth.

Mobile instant messaging maintaining rapid development, with fiercer competition among manufacturers

The number of China's users of mobile instant messaging reached 431 million as of December 2013, representing a growth of 78.64 million or 22.3% over the end of 2012. The utilization rate of mobile instant messaging was 86.1%, up by 2.2 percentage points over the end of 2012.

With its service features closely combined with the mobile phone features, mobile instant messaging developed rapidly. Internal analysis shows that compared with the PC end, it is more difficult to develop small and medium-sized mobile instant messaging tools. This is because on the one hand, the limited mobile phone features have resulted in limited development of value-added services, and on the other hand, those instant messaging tools ranking among the top few have greatly increased the user stickiness through the combination of online and offline services and applications, and the platform competition barriers have been created.

Mobile search growing rapidly to become a focus of competition among enterprises

The number of mobile search users in China reached 365 million as of December 2013, representing a growth of 73.65 million or 25.3% over the end of 2012. The utilization rate was 73.0%, up by 3.6 percentage points over the end of 2012. With the rapid growth of mobile Internet, some search behaviors of Internet users have shifted from the PC end to the mobile end.

The mobile-end search behavior of Internet users differs from the PC-end one. In terms of the search pattern, mobile search has more diversified input modes, such as voice and QR code scanning in addition to text input, and its utilization rate increases rapidly. In terms of the search content, users have greater demands for searching local information related to lifestyle services and applications at the mobile end, in addition to entertainment and reading; and mobile search has become one of the important distribution channels for applications.

Mobile microblog users decreasing and users' enthusiasm dropping

As of December 2013, the number of microblog users was 196 million, representing a decrease of 5.96 million or 2.9% from the end of 2012. The utilization rate of mobile microblogs was 39.3%, down by 8.9 percentage points from the end of 2012. Because mobile-end applications have strong exclusivity of use, the rapid development of similar platform-based mobile instant messaging and the highly overlapped functions of microblogs have diverted some of the mobile microblog users.

Mobile videos growing rapidly to have become the fifth biggest application of mobile Internet

Mobile video users reached 247 million in China as of December 2013, an increase of 112 million or 83.8% over the end of 2012. The utilization rate of mobile videos by Internet users reached 49.3%, up by 17.3 percentage points over the end of 2012.

The rapid growth of mobile videos is attributed to the following three factors. Firstly, the overall Internet use behavior of Internet users is shifting toward the mobile end, and the huge size of mobile Internet users has laid a user foundation for the use of mobile videos. Secondly, the use environment of mobile videos is improving. For example, the development of smartphones, the increase of the Wi-Fi utilization rate and the launch of the 4G network in the future are all the stimulators of the mobile video growth. Finally, the great promotional efforts by video manufacturers at the client side have increased Internet users' awareness of mobile videos, attracting more Internet users to use mobile videos.

Mobile games achieving an eruptive growth, with user transfer speeding up

The number of mobile game users in China reached 215 million as of December 2013, representing a growth of 75.94 million or 54.5% annually over the end of 2012. The utilization rate of mobile games was 43.1%, up by 9.9 percentage points over the end of 2012.

In 2013, the mobile game users achieved an eruptive growth, thanks to a number of factors. Firstly, games are one of the primary needs in people's daily life. With the rapid popularization of smartphones and speedy construction of networks, game demands are shifting from the PC end to the mobile end. Secondly, mobile games have the strongest cashability. Therefore, games are promoted in similar mobile applications like instant messaging, social networking applications, and distribution channels, boosting the growth of mobile game users. Finally, mobile games are characterized by a low threshold of use and playtime fragmentation, supplementing PC-end games and satisfying users' needs.

Mobile business market manifesting huge potential, with a rapidly increasing utilization rate

In 2013, the huge market potential erupted in the mobile business market. Mobile shopping developed rapidly in the mobile-end business market, with a user size reaching 144 million. As a supplement to the PC-end online shopping channel, mobile shopping had a rapidly increasing user size, which is attributed to the following three factors: Firstly, mobile phones' unique functions (code scanning, photo scanning, etc.) and convenience of use have increased the decision-making efficiency of users during their shopping. Secondly, the great promotional efforts by e-business enterprises at the mobile end have boosted online shopping by mobile phone users to some extent. Thirdly, mobile phones' unique localized e-business has expanded the mobile-end shopping channels for users.

In 2013, mobile online payment grew rapidly, with a user size of 125 million and a utilization rate of 25.1%, up by 11.9 percentage points over the end of last year. The rapid development of mobile payment is mainly attributed to the following three factors: the rapid growth of mobile phone Internet users has laid a user foundation for mobile payment; the development of mobile e-business has boosted the growth of mobile-end payment; it is a combined promotional effect of the rapid development of mobile Internet and mobile business applications as well as the active deployment by each industry-chain party related to mobile payment. New technologies such as NFC and Bluetooth keys will further boost the development of payment applications with the mobile phone as the carrier.

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(1)　Travel booking in this Report is defined as the booking of air tickets, hotels, train tickets, or travel itineraries in the past six months.

(2)　Offline travel booking is a way of travel booking mainly relying on the telephone or physical store.

(3)　No survey was conducted on online news users via mobile phones in December 2012. The data here are from the survey conducted in June 2013.