Netizen Growth Entered into a Steady State
Application Hotspot Transferred to Mobile Phone Products

On July 17th, 2013, China Internet Network Information Center(CNNIC)released the 32nd Statistical Report on Internet Development ("the Report"). The Report shows that by the end of June 2013, Chinese netizens reached 591 million, with the Internet penetration being 44.1%. During the first half of this year, mobile phones as the Internet terminals made an eye-catching play, because it not only became an important source of new netizens but also performed well in such network applications as instant messaging and e-business.

Netizen Growth Entered into a Steady State,Mobile Phones Became No. 1 Source of New Netizens
The Report shows that by the end of June 2013, the number of netizens in China has reached 591 million, increasing by 26.56 million compared with the end of 2012. The Internet penetration was 44.1%, increasing by 2% compared to that at the end of 2012. Of the new netizens, up to 70.0% of them used mobile phones to surf the Internet, outnumbering those netizens who use other equipment to surf the Internet. It is worth mentioning that the Internet penetration was quite fast in the rural areas of China. Of the new netizens in the semiannual period, rural netizens accounted for 54.4%.

Meantime, the number of mobile phone netizens in China has reached 464 million by the end of June 2013, increasing by 43.79 million compared with the end of 2012. Netizens of using mobile phones rose to 78.5%. Popularity of the 3G, development of wireless networks, and innovation of mobile phone application greatly facilitated the rapid growth of mobile phone netizens. 
 

Mobile Phone Applications Became Deleloping Highlight,Growth of PC Applications Tended to Slow Down
By the end of June 2013, the scale of instant messaging netizens hit 497 million, increasing by 29.31 million in a half year. The application of instant messaging had the largest scale of growth among all applications. With a usage rate of 84.2%, it rose by 1.3 % compared to that at the end of 2012. Its usage rate stayed at No.1 and kept rising. The development at the mobile phone terminal, in particular, was even faster. In the instant messaging via mobile phones, the number of netizens was 397 million, increasing by 45.2 million compared to that at the end of 2012, with a usage rate of 85.7%. Both the growth rate and the usage rate have exceeded the overall level of the instant messaging application.

The Report shows that in comparison to 2012, there was no significant growth in online entertainment application. Such application had little change in terms of the usage rate, and its development slowed down on the whole. Mobile phones became an important breakthrough point for the scale growth of each type of application. In comparison to the end of 2012, the user scale had increased by 14.0%, 18.9%, 15.7% and 12.0% respectively in the mobile phone network music, mobile phone network video, mobile phone network game and mobile phone network literature, maintaining a high growth rate.

As an Internet application with rapid rise in recent years, the e-business application developed rapidly at the mobile phone terminal. Specifically, the netizen scale in the mobile phone online payment grew by a large margin. The Report shows that the online payment user has reached 244 million, increasing by 23.73 million in a half year, with a growth rate of 10.8%. Specifically, the number of mobile phones online payment user rose by 43.0% over the year 2012. In addition, large-scale growth was seen in the mobile phone shopping, mobile phone group purchase and mobile phone online banking.