Instead of surveying every Internet user in China, CNNIC conducted phone interviewers 32,325 times with any Chinese citizen over the age of six who used the Internet for at least an hour per week, with the CNNIC extrapolating its figures from those responses.

Naturally, Chinese Internet users use the same kinds of services that English speaking Net users enjoy daily – search engines to find information, the eternally popular but increasingly under phishing attack email service, online buying and selling, news, blogs and games.

Interestingly, broadband users were a majority of the 137m user figure, at 90.7m users – a 41.1% increase year-on-year, showing excellent growth in broadband access for Chinese users. Mobile devices with Internet access are being used to access the Internet, as smartphones allow, and 17 million people with a mobile chose to access the Internet that way.

As is to be expected, the Chinese Government is not standing still and basking in the growing numbers, but instead wants to boost ‘wireless broadband’ through 3G mobile technology, in addition to other forms of broadband. China has often wanted to create its own standards to both avoid paying royalties and because it now has the technical know-how.

Still, the number of Internet users no matter how they connect are dwarfed by mobile phone owners, which number nearly half a billion with a userbase of 461m.

It’s also crucial for the Chinese people to be much more “online aware” and savvy, not only to protect themselves again private data theft and malware/crimeware/spyware, but also to be able to enjoy the Beijing Summer Olympics with knowledge on how access all the information you need – online!
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