Home » General » How big can China get on the Internet? Here are some mind-blowing numbers.

How big can China get on the Internet? Here are some mind-blowing numbers.

August 23rd, 2011 General

China China is not only the largest nation on the planet, these days it’s also by far the largest on the Internet (which wasn’t always the case). It has twice as many Internet users as the United States. And it’s only getting started.

The current situation is as follows:

Mainland China has 485 million Internet users.
If you also include Hong Kong, that number rises to 490 million.
That is 23% of the world’s 2.1 billion Internet users.
The nearest public after China is the United States, with 245 million Internet users. That is, as we mentioned, half of what China has.

And yet China only has an Internet penetration of 36.3%. In additional words, barely a third of its populace uses the Internet. That’s very low compared to many additional countries, for example the United States, which has an Internet penetration of 78.2%, or the United Kingdom with 82%.

Although China’s populace isn’t expected to grow much over the coming decade due to quite aggressive populace control, it’s by now huge at 1.34 billion. That’s nearly one fifth of the world’s populace (6.94 billion) and a huge pool of potential Internet users.

China’s capacity for growth

That low Internet penetration coupled with China’s huge populace means that the public’s presence on the Internet has plenty of room to grow.

If China today had the same Internet penetration as the United States, it would have over a billion Internet users.

We all know that China’s economy is developing at a wild pace, and the Chinese disorder has placed a strong emphasis on developing the public’s Internet infrastructure. A on the rise share of its populace will have access to the Internet, of that there can be no doubt. A huge question remains, though.

An assumption, and China’s record so far

This post of course makes one huge assumption, and that is that China can reach the same level of Internet penetration currently loved by countries like the United States and the United Kingdom. China has a huge populace its own set of unique challenges, so it may be a long time before this happens. In fact, it may never happen. We don’t have that kind of crystal ball.

Though, if you have any doubt in this area China’s capacity for growth on the Internet, let’s end this post with a concise look at how China’s spot on the Internet changed between 2000 and 2010. Back in the year 2000, China had just 22.5 million Internet users. Ten years shortly, that number had risen to 420 million. And now, just a year shortly, it’s up to 485 million.

So even though China has just scratched the surface of its potential, it’s by now an Internet superpower.

Data source: Internet World Stats for Internet usage numbers.

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How huge can China get on the Internet? Here are some mind-blowing numbers.