Research Report on Rural Internet Development 2014 Released Rapid Growth of Entertainment and E-commerce Apps
CNNIC recently released the Research Report on Rural Internet Development 2014 (hereinafter referred to as “the Report”). According to the Report, as of December 2014, the number of rural Internet users reached 178 million, accounting for 27.5% of all Internet users in China, down 1.1 percentage point compared with that in the previous year. The growth of rural Internet users slowed down as it became increasingly difficult to turn non-Internet users to Internet users, and the urban-rural gap in Internet penetration rate widened. The proportion of rural Internet users who experienced cyber-security incidents was lower than that of urban Internet users, who had a lower sense of cyber-security than their rural counterparts. At the same time, entertainment and e-commerce apps were the most used and fastest growing apps among rural Internet users.
Slower growth of rural Internet users, and widening urban-rural gap in Internet penetration
By the end of December 2014, the number of rural Internet users in China had reached 178 million, up 1% on a y-o-y basis. The number of urban Internet users had grown at a higher rate to 470 million. Rural Internet users accounted for 27.5% of all Internet users, down 1.1 percentage points compared with that in the previous year. With the growth of Internet users decelerating and the advance of urbanization, the growth of rural Internet users slowed down and it became increasingly difficult to get non-Internet users online.
Despite the increase in the number of rural Internet users and the penetration rate in rural areas, the urban-rural gap in Internet penetration was widening. In 2014, the penetration rate in urban areas was higher than that in rural areas by 34 percentage points. Such a gap was partly because the advance of urbanization to some extent covered up the achievement in popularizing the Internet in rural areas, and more importantly, due to the imbalanced economic development, which was the main reason for the urban-rural gap.
Lower proportion of cyber-security incidents, and stronger sense of security
The proportion of rural Internet users who experienced cyber-security incidents was lower than that of urban Internet users. Viruses and Trojan were the biggest threat to rural Internet users, which accounted for 26.4% of all cyber-security incidents, a little lower than that of urban Internet users. The next biggest threat was account or password theft, accounting for 24.9%, 1.3 percentage point lower than that of urban Internet users. 10.8% of rural Internet users experienced consumer frauds and scams, 2.5 percentage points lower than their urban counterparts. The lower proportion of cyber-security incidents among rural Internet users is related to their degree of usage.
For that reason, rural Internet users had a stronger sense of security on the Internet. 4.9% of rural Internet users believed the Internet was very safe, two percentage points higher than urban Internet users. The lack of Internet-related education and the weak awareness of cyber-security in rural areas may result in serious consequences. Therefore, greater efforts shall be made to promote cyber security among rural Internet users and strengthen their awareness of cyber security to protect them against security threats.
Entrainment apps are the most used apps and remain the key application of rural Internet users
The utilization ratio of entertainment apps dropped among urban Internet users, but rose among rural Internet users. The improvement of the Internet infrastructure and the enhancement of smartphone hardware greatly increased the frequency of online entertainment among rural Internet users. By the end of December 2014, the number of rural online video users had reached 109 million, up 12% year on year, while the number of urban online video users fell by 1.1 percentage points. Likewise, the online video utilization ratio grew by 5.9 percentage points among rural internet users, while it dropped among urban Internet users.
The smallest gap between urban and rural Internet users consisted in the utilization ratio of online games. As of December 2014, the number of rural online game users had reached 96.37 million, an increase of 16.8 percentage points. The utilization ratio of online games among rural Internet users was 54%, up 7.3 percentage points compared with that in the previous year, and only 3.3 percentage points lower than that of urban Internet users.
The number of rural online literature users had reached 72.61 million, up 9.7 percentage points on a y-o-y basis. The number of urban online literature users grew by 5.4%, lower than that of rural users. The utilization ratio of online literature among rural Internet users was 40.7%, up 3.2 percentage points on a y-o-y basis.
E-commerce apps grow fast and online shopping gets popular
As of December 2014, the number of rural online shoppers surged by 40.6% to 77.14 million, making e-commerce apps the fast growing one among all apps. The number of urban online shoppers grew by 16.9% to 284 million, much lower than that of rural users. The utilization ratio of online shopping among rural Internet users was 43.2%, up 12.1 percentage points on a y-o-y basis. Although e-commerce apps registered the biggest gap in terms of the utilization ratio between urban and rural Internet users, online shopping got increasing popular among rural Internet users in 2014.
By the end of December 2014, the number of rural online payment users had reached 62.76 million, up 38.1% year on year. The number of urban online payment users grew by 14.4% to 242 million, representing a slower growth than that of rural online payment users. The utilization ratio of online payment among rural Internet users was 35.2%, up nearly 10 percentage points on a y-o-y basis. The significant increase in rural e-commerce app users gave a direct boost to the penetration of online payment among rural Internet users.
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