Lower-tier Chinese cities (tier-4 and lower) saw the largest growth of 21.7% in active mobile devices in Q1 2020. More users in the above 40 years old age group (14% growth) were observed.

Check out the updated Mobile Apps Overview 2020 here including top mobile app categories by the total number of apps, usage time, total users. And, check out the top growing mobile app categories by total new users, city tiers, age groups,

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) issued a warning that China’s population could start to shrink as soon as 2027 if its fertility rate remains at the current level of about 1.6. According to Singapore media Channel NewsAsia, China’s population is set to reach a peak of 1.442 billion in 2029 and start a long period of “unstoppable” decline in 2030.

In 2018, the number of births was 15.23 million with a birth rate of 10.94 per thousand. The number of deaths was 9.93 million with a death rate of 7.13 per thousand. The natural growth rate was 3.81 per thousand.

Regarding gender, the male population was 713.51 million, and the female population was 681.87 million. The sex ratio of the total population was 104.64 (the female is 100).

Concerning age composition, the population at the working age of 16-59 was 897.29 million, accounting for 64.3% of the total population. People aged 60 and over was 249.49 million, accounting for 17.9% of the total, 166.58 million of which aged 65 and over, accounting for 11.9% of the total.

Concerning urban-rural structure, the permanent residents in urban areas were 831.37 million, an increase of 17.90 million over that at the end of last year; and the permanent residents in rural areas were 564.01 million, a decrease of 12.60 million.

The proportion of the urban population to the total population (urbanization rate) was 59.58%, 1.06 percentage points higher than that at the end of 2017.

The population who reside in areas other than their household registration and have been away from there for over six months reached 286 million, which was 4.50 million less than that at the end of 2017. Specifically, the floating population stood at 241 million, 3.78 million less than that at the end of 2017.

Insights of China internet users in lower-tier cities

Over three-quarters of China internet users trust news and information from traditional media in 2016 compared with 70% in 2015 according to a research by Edelman.

Owned media is the least trusted online news source, followed by social media in China.

Weibo was the most active social mobile app in China in 2015 with high user monthly coverage rate and long usage time according to TrustData. Monthly active users of Weibo was 222 million as of September 2015 according to Tencent. Read more…

Year 2015 is almost over; let’s recall some of the top keywords for China internet that got so much attention in the world: outbound tourism, cross-border online shopping, mobile, WeChat, Tmall…

Here are the most popular CIW articles in 2015:

1. Baidu, Sogou among Top 5 Biggest Search Engines in the World. eMarketer estimated that in 2015, the total spend of digital advertising in the world will exceed US$170.85 billion according to its report released on 31 March 2015. Baidu and Sohu ranked the second and fourth respectively in the top 5 biggest search engines by revenue in 2014.

Also read: China Search Engine Market Share, and China’s Mobile Search Market

2. China E-commerce Market Overview. In Q1 2015, the total transaction value of China e-commerce market exceeded RMB3.48 trillion (USD$567.49 billion) with an increase of 10.1% YoY and 23.8% QoQ. In accordance with China B2B market and online shopping market in Q1 2015, e-commerce market had slowed its YoY growth. Besides, it is now evolving into a new stage.

• China Online Cosmetics Market Overview
• China Online Shopping Accounted for over 10% of Total Retail
• 10 Charts to Tell You Almost Everything About Alibaba Group
• Stats of Top Selling Brands on Taobao/Tmall in 18 Categories in Sep 2014
• How Japanese AV Idol Sora Aoi Sells on China Social Media
• China Top 100 E-Commerce Companies in Q3 2015

3. Wechat Launched Wechat Contacts App Offering Free Calls.  Wechat released a Wechat Contacts app as an enhancement to smartphones’ existing contacts.

• How Wechat Users Search For Public Accounts
• China Social Media Users Insights in 2015
• WeChat, Weibo or Alipay? Who Won Hongbao War in 2015?
• WeChat & Weibo Users Most Active Social Shoppers in the World
• Wechat 5.0 Public Account Operation Guide
• 20 Charts on WeChat Shopping Market
• How WeChat Drives Viral Marketing of Local Specialities
• The Value of WeChat Official Accounts
• WeChat to Launch Themed Campaign on China Children’s Day
• WeChat Daily Active Users Reached 570 Mln in Sep 2015

3.  China B2B E-commerce Market in Q1 2015. China B2B e-commerce market reached RMB 5.48 billion (USD 883 million) in Q1 2015, an decrease of 1.6% QoQ according to Analysis International.

4. China Female Online Shopper Insights 2015. Shoes and bags accounted for 27.3% of all the categories of online products, being the best selling product category. Cosmetics ranked the third, which showed female online shopping is booming in China.

5. China Mobile Social Networking Users to Reach 335.9 Mln in 2015. The number will continue grow and by 2019, users will exceed 480.4 million, representing 34.8% of total population.

6. 80% China’s Mobile Users Rooted Smartphones in 2014 Compared with traditional channels to download ROM, ROM official website is more resourceful and categorized. 36.4% respondents would like to download on official websites in 2014. However, there were fewer smartphone users downloading ROM from online communities.

• The Secrets Of Xiaomi Marketing Success in China
• China Top 100 Mobile Apps in July 2015
• 70% App Downloads From Mobile App Stores in China
• China Mobile Internet Insights in H1 2015

7.  Rise of the China Outbound Tourism. China outbound tourists on average spent RMB 20,000 (US$3,252) during travel per person and shopping is an important part of their spend in oversea trips (57.8%).

• China Tourists Travel Intention Study 2015
• Chinese Luxury Traveler Insights 2015
• China, the Largest Outbound Tourism Market in 3 Consecutive years
• China to Be the Largest Business Travel Market Worldwide in 2016
• China Online Accommodation Booking Market in Q3 2015
• China Online Travel Market Overview in Q3 2015

Last but not least, we wish you a Happy New Year with the hope that you will have many blessings in the year to come!

China’s mobile internet users reached 901 million as of September of 2015 according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The mobile e-mail users in China have reached 250 million based on the latest report of WPS.

64% e-mail users are used to use e-mail on desktop computers. However, by the further expansion of the mobile internet and smartphones, more people tend to use mobile phones to contact with friends, read news and even work that 56% e-mail users prefer utilizing mobile mailbox every day.

Business mailbox is one of the major reasons of people to open e-mail every day. Business e-mail users in China receive an average of 20 e-mails and send 2 to 3 e-mails every day. Enterprise e-mail users are mainly companies operating the internet, finance, sales and the like as well as some large state-owned enterprises. Mobile business mailbox users almost spend one-fourth of their working hours on mobile mailbox apps.

College students and white collars are major users of personal e-mails in China. In general, a majority of private mailbox users will open once to twice every day although they have two or even more e-mail accounts. College students and white collars who need to apply for jobs or change jobs receive an average of ten e-mails every day and six from online recruitment websites.

Men accounts for 70% of mobile e-mail users and women only 30%. Female mobile e-mail users usually manage e-mails during 9am to 10am while male users are used to handling e-mails at night.

More than 20% users will read through the e-mails to search for news and the average usage time has increased by 50% according to WPS. 15% users check their mailboxes in the subway, 10% will open the mobile e-mail accounts before going to sleep, and 9% even use the mobile apps in the bathroom.

Men aged from 25 to 35 years old play the dominant role among mobile e-mail users. The post-70s don’t use mobile e-mails very often. Only the post-90s who will apply for jobs use mailboxes every day. The post-70s prefer to use 163 Email accounts and Yahoo Email. The post-80s like to use 163 Email, QQ Email, and Gmail. The post-90s are more likely to use QQ Email and Gmail. Mobile mailboxes are most popular in Guangdong, Beijing, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Liaoning. QQ Email, 163 Email, Sina Mail, Gmail and Hotmail are popular private mailboxes:

• QQ Postbox: mainly for students, white collars and people not using the internet too much, mostly for entertainment and everyday communication;
• 163 Postbox & Sina Mail: mainly for individual and business contacts;
• Gmail: users are more likely proficient in networking and computer applications;
• Hotmail: mainly for MSN white-collars.

Also read: China’s Mobile Internet Insights Q1-Q3 2015

China “exports” the most number of students studying overseas in the world according to a UNSCO’s report. China and India, which have the most people in the world, also have the most students studying overseas in 2012.

In 2012, Chinese overseas students reached 694,400, ranking the top in the world, followed by India and South Korea with 189,500 and 123,700 overseas students respectively.

Also read: China Tourists Travel Intention Study 2015

From January to March in 2015, 60.97% China internet users visited female fashion websites directly. Male visitors accounted for 59.21% and visitors who are between 30 years old and 40 years old represented 42.5% according to Baidu’s research.

Most of the visitors visited female fashion websites directly from Jan to Mar in 2015, representing 60.97%.

Also read: China Navigation Websites Study

Internet is now the important method for Chinese people to social and for information to spread. According to the report released by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, over 90% China urban households own more than one network device in 2014.

The report shows that 93.8% China urban households own more than one network device and 53.94% respondents were engaged in spreading information online.

In 2018, China internet’s penetration will exceed 90%. eMarketer estimates that by 2018, China internet female and male users will be about half to half which indicates female internet users’ penetration rate will be much high since there are fewer female in China.

GlobalWebIndex data showed that 65% of netizen worldwide accessed internet via mobile phone, while the percentage was even higher in specific country-China had 83% mobile internet penetration with approximately 383 million netizens.

Also read: Chinese Female Internet Users Insight

Navigation websites are similar to directory websites, listing websites by categories and making it easier for users to find what they need. It’s set as homepage or entry page to internet access by many internet users in China. Let’s take a look at some insights of navigation websites in China.

In July 2014, navigation websites had daily user coverage of 150 million with growth rate of 56.3%, ranking the most popular online application in China according to data from iResearch.

China top 3 navigation websites by MAUs in October were Hao.360.cn, Hao123.cn and 123.Sougou.com according to data from EnfoDesk.

Page views of Hao123.cn exceeded 2,909 million in October, ranking top among China navigation websites, followed by Hao.360.cn and 2345.com.

Besides, Hao123.cn had longest visiting time among China navigation websites in October.

In terms of visits, Hao.360.cn had the most visits among China navigation websites, followed by Hao123.cn and 2345.com in October 2014.

Most Chinese people who use navigation service on the internet were satisfied with popular navigation websites in China according to research of EnfoDesk.

Male users accounted for 74.4% of total navigation website users in China.

Users whose income were between 2,000 and 3,999 yuan accounted for 27.86% of total users, which were the major ones in October 2014.

China navigation website users who were in east China represented 36.62% of total users, followed by north and south China.

Users who had bachelor degree used navigation websites more than other users with different education background in October 2014.

China navigation website users favored social news on desktop, which accounted for 80.13%.

Leisure games accounted for 63.4% of all the favored games by Chinese people, ranking top, followed by role play and chess & cards games.

Online videos like movie, hot trend video and TV drama were the most popular ones favored by Chinese users in 2014.

Hao123.cn, Hao.360.cn and 2345.com are known by Chinese people and they visited these navigation websites within half a year in 2014.

Chinese users tend to visit navigation website with installed browser, which represented 60.73% in 2014.

Clothing, bags & luggage, digital product and book & video were top 3 categories of products purchased via navigation websites by Chinese users on desktop in 2014.

Also read: China Top Automobile Websites in Q3 2014

China is the biggest internet market in the world by penetration rate, estimated by eMarketer. In 2018, China internet’s penetration will exceed 90%.

In 2014, China sex ratio among internet users are 126 men to every 100 women according to data of eMarketer. It estimates that by 2018, China internet female and male users will be about half to half which indicates female internet users’ penetration rate will be much high since there are fewer female in China. 

75% of Chinese families’ consumption is decided by women and their influence is extended to internet and mobile internet. Chinese female internet users are showing great potential nowadays.

The internet penetration rate among China’s young adults is relatively high in 2014. 80% of China internet users who are between 18 and 34 years old access internet every month. The data also shows the old who are over 60 years old also use internet a lot in China nowadays. It is estimated that the penetration among all age groups will all increase through 2018.

In China rural areas, the internet penetration rate is rising. As of December 2013, internet users in rural China were 177 million; and 149 million users were mobile Internet users. The internet usage with mobile phone accounted for 84.6% in rural China, which had 5% higher than in cities.

Also read: China Mobile Internet Statistics 2014

China internet users will exceed 643.6 million by end of 2014, estimated by eMarketer. The penetration is high among young adults. 80% of China internet users between 18 to 34 years old use internet every month.

China internet users an average own 1.9 devices per person.

Most internet users in China go online everyday. This is true across all age ranges, with 64% of Internet users 55 or older coming online everyday.

Smartphone internet users in China use their smartphones for a range of everyday activities.

52% of Chinese respondents made their last clothing/ footwear purchase online – one of the highest rates the world. The 3 most popular online shopping news apps were Meilishuo, Mogujie and Koudai in September.

iResearch estimates China mobile shopping market is going to exceed RMB800 billion (US$129.7 billion) this year, 30% of total total online shopping transactions.

59% of respondents in China researched their last purchase both online and offline.

1 in 3 of Chinese smartphone users used their device during their last purchase.

Chinese respondents frequently research online and then buy offline – this is particularly the case for car insurance and TV sets.

Most Chinese respondents watch online video to be entertained or inspired. In Q3 2014, China online video market reached RMB6.82 billion (US$1.11 billion) with increase of 9.3% QoQ, and it is still showing great power in China.

1 in 3 respondents in China watched their last online video with someone else. This was usually their partner.

55% of Chinese respondents were fully focused on the last online video they watched.

Online video is often watched while commuting/ travelling in China.

Also read: China Mobile Internet Market in Q3 2014

In 2013, Jingdong’s total revenue exceeded RMB69.34 billion ($11.28 billion) and its net profit was RMB6.86 billion ($1.11 billion) with net profit rate of 9.9%. Jingdong ranked top in China Internet enterprises by revenue, followed by Tencent and Alibaba in 2013.

Jingdong.com, one of the most popular online shopping website in China. It had approximately 38,000 merchants on its online marketplace as of June 30, 2014 and a total of 62,061 full-time employees as of July 31, 2014.

Tencent, one of most successful Internet enterprise that featured with gaming products and social applications. Instant Messaging client QQ and mobile app WeChat are the flagship products of Tencent. See more about Tencent: Whitepaper: The Story of Rise of Tencent Empire

Alibaba Group is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume (GMV) in 2013, according to the IDC GMV Report. See its investment timeline: here.

Here is the list for China Top 100 Internet Enterprises in 2013:

Read more: How Wechat Moments Are Used As Sales Channel in China

75% of Chinese families’ consumption is decided by women and their influence is extended to internet and mobile internet. In 2012, purchase by female Internet users accounted for 50% of total online shopping transaction value ($1,324.28 billion). They accounted for over 60% of total users on comprehensive goods e-commerce platform, and 80%-90% on cosmetics e-commerce platform, and over 70% on group buying platform.

The number of China female Internet users was 280 million as of 30 June 2014 , and the total number of Internet users exceeded 632 million according to the report of CNNIC.

Most of Chinese female mobile Internet users have monthly income between RMB1,000 and RMB3,000 in 2011. With the popularity of mobile payment, China female Internet users’ online shopping spend is expected to increase.

The total number of China mobile Internet users reached 857 million which accounted for 68.2% of total mobile phone users (1.256 billion) till May 2014 according to MIIT.

Chinese female mobile Internet users who are between 19 to 35 years old accounted for 56% of the total Internet users and they were major users in China online shopping market according to data from EnfoDesk.

Students accounted for 29.2% of total Chinese female Internet users and workers accounted for 15.2%. Females’ shopping willingness is easy to stimulate and they could be addicted to online shopping.

Also read: 13 Charts of China Mobile Internet User Insights

Purchasing foreign products nowadays shows a rising trend in Chinese market. Foreign products, commonly perceived as being with good quality, are often more expensive in China than in the west. 

One Haagen-Dazs is sold at USD14.29 in China, while it costs USD4.87 overseas. But why are foreign products more expensive in China? The pricing of an exported product are determined by several factors: the import tax, cost, sales channels, brand processing strategy and so on.

The import tax affects the final price of exported products but it may not be so decisive. Take the pricing of “Coach” handbag as an example: it is priced at USD617 in China, USD417 in HK but USD294 in US.

US price (294)+ Tariff (10%)+ VAT (17%) + logistcis”=US$406

We can figure out $406 is much lower than the actual price of $617 in China. In China, the import tax on imported goods are generally between 10% to 20%, lower than some countries such as India; however, it’s even cheaper in India than it is in China.

When it comes to the cost of the foreign products, labour cost in developed countries could be a factor but during recent years, some parts of production lines have transferred from local to the developing countries with cheap labor, such as China, India, Vietnam etc., which, in other words, has lowed the cost of products instead.

You may not know most of the coffee beans consumed at Starbucks are sourced in Yunnan Province, China. Starbucks has primary processing factory in Yunnan, which can control the cost of  coffee bean within USD0.06 for each cup. However, with lower cost, why is the price higher in China?

Let’s take a look at the sales channels. According to some friends in the retailing industry, the more well-known brand can often get a lower rent.

Starbucks, ZARA, Levi’s, Coach, CK, NIKE, Haagen-Dazs… all achieved great success and have a good market share in China. The president of MONT BLANC in China once said:

we sell one bag for USD4,873 in China; though the government cut tariff by 20%, the bag is still USD4,873. We make profit even from tariff.

There is a solid reason of higher pricing adopted by many well known premium brands in China as it’s still true among many Chinese consumers’ perception: high pricing = premium quality.

A new report from research and advisory firm Gartner identifies the top 10 strategic technology trends that CIOs in China should consider in order to pursue business growth and remain competitive throughout the digital era.

The top 10 technology trends highlight the current state of technology adoption in China, as well as the maturity and traction of the technologies. Organizations in China are expected to spend $140.6 billion (RMB 854 billion) on technology products and services in 2014, according to Gartner’s latest forecast.

Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt. A strategic technology may be an existing technology that has matured and/or become suitable for a wider range of uses, or an emerging technology that offers an opportunity for strategic business advantage.

China is a large IT market full of potential and competiveness,

said Amy Teng, principal research analyst at Gartner.

China’s technology trends align with other regions worldwide – but with some variations because of unique market conditions. Enterprises in China are in various stages of adoption, with some mature organizations being early adopters of technology and some still in the early stages of evaluation.

“Although the top 10 technologies that Chinese companies should factor into their strategic planning processes are defined here, this does not necessarily mean investment in all of the listed technologies is essential,” said Ms. Teng.

However, companies should look to make deliberate decisions about each of them during the next two years.”

The top ten strategic technology trends for China in 2014 include:

Mobile Device Diversity and Management

The rapid adoption of BYOD makes enterprise mobility strategies more complex and challenging. Through 2018, the growing variety of devices, computing styles, user contexts and interaction paradigms will make managing this diversity a priority strategic initiative for enterprises CIOs. In China, CIOs experience an even more serious situation because the region exhibits a faster device replacement cycle due to the popularity of low-tier smartphones. Another distinct differentiation is created by the culture of Chinese employees, who tend to work longer hours and increasingly mix work with life, a trend that extends to their digital “self.”

Mobile Apps and Applications

Mobile apps and applications will continue to grow in 2014 and there is no sign of that trend slowing down, driven by the strong demand for mobile services that have moved beyond the early stage of enabling information and content access to bringing new capabilities to consumers and businesses. With the popularity of using mobile devices to explore the physical world, Chinese companies are employing new interactive technologies such as quick response (QR) code, audio, augmented reality, gesture and Near Field Communication (NFC) with QR code being the most popular one. Enterprises are gearing up efforts on mobile applications and early adopters, including banks and airlines, have introduced mobile apps for consumers or employees, such as mobile banking, self-check-in services and in-cabin services.

Social Commerce

Social commerce is the use of social networks and social media to support sales transactions. China is well ahead of western counterparts by almost five years in successfully deploying all use cases of social commerce. The most common use case for social commerce in the U.S. and Europe is product reviews with limited success in social shopping and social network commerce. China proves contrary with social network commerce dominating the market. Tencent QQ, Tencent WeChat and Sina Weibo are the three major social networks in China that enterprises leverage to drive social commerce.

Internet of Everything

Gartner forecasts that the Internet of Things (IoT) will include 26 billion units installed by 2020 and related IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion, mostly in services, in 2020. China’s leaders have provided support and encouragement to bring China to the forefront of IoT development. A number of key policies have been developed to target IoT innovation, with nine areas being identified as the applications areas that the government will invest in. These are: smart industrial, smart logistics, smart agriculture, smart grid, intelligent medical, smart household, intelligent transportation, smart city security and management, and smart environment protection.

Hybrid cloud and IT as a Service Broker

Hybrid IT is the mission and the operational model for IT in a cloud computing world. As more cloud computing services emerge, the value of a trusted broker for the enterprise will increase. This broker will ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness in provider selection, governance, payment, integration, management, security and compliance. Most Chinese enterprises have started leveraging cloud computing and their users are increasingly accepting the new modes of working. However, for reasons both external and internal, Chinese enterprises are yet to form successful Hybrid IT environments. Nevertheless Gartner expects that the demand for hybrid solutions will intensify over the next three years, forcing companies in China to deploy technologies to secure, manage and govern solutions across a hybrid architecture.

Cloud/Client Architecture

The high growth in smartphone sales and the thriving mobile apps ecosystem coupled with a broad choice of devices and brands have created a seedbed for enterprises to adopt a new cloud/client applications model in China. The availability of 4G telecom services and a few emerging public cloud services will further fuel the development of mobile services and change of client/cloud architecture in imminent future. CIOs and enterprises IT will need to think about how they can provide a unified and seamless integrated users experience across mobile endpoint devices and re-gain the software engineering best practices to balance among monolithic, modular, object- and service-oriented approaches. Fortunately, Chinese enterprises have relatively less legacy to abandon when adopting this new model.

The Era of Personal Cloud

Users in China are increasingly adopting various personal cloud services such as Tudou for streaming video, WeChat for social network, Qzone for cloud storage and data synchronization across devices and platforms. However, the major difference between personal cloud service in China and most other mature markets is the current revenue model. Most of the personal cloud services provided in China are currently free to customers – even the streaming video services. This looks set to change as Chinese businesses look increasingly at how they can develop their services over the personal cloud to their employees, business partners or customers to improve their operations and expand revenue.

Software-Defined Anything

Software-defined anything (SDx) decouples the IT services (such as computing, networking, security, and storage) from the hardware underneath, hence extending the concept of virtualization into a new level in which all data center resources are abstracted, pooled and automatically managed. The core components of SDx in data centers include compute virtualization, software-defined networks (SDNs), and software-defined storage (SDS). In China, SDN is rising very fast in Type A enterprises, as well as in large e-commerce and cloud services providers. Although SDS is at a very early stage, its potential market opportunity has attracted globally established providers such as EMC and HP, while Chinese vendors such as DataCore and global startups such as Nexenta have also introduced relevant solutions.

Web-scale IT

To most of Chinese enterprises, Web-scale IT is a new concept that will be driven by the trend of consumerization. The rise of consumer culture is changing the way enterprises do business. Digital marketing and e-commerce require an efficient and agile IT support and, given the large mobile and Internet population of China, scalability will be a big issue. All these factors challenge the conventional IT approach in terms of scalability, cost, and speed to respond. Web-scale IT focuses not only on potentially being able to scale IT-related facilities and technology, but also the associated operational processes and supporting organizational structure in the context of a more risk-embracing culture.

3D Printing

3D printing is achieved by using an additive process through a device able to create physical objects from digital models. The market is broadly divided into three segments: bioprinting, consumer 3D printing and enterprise 3D printing. The main advantage of 3D printing is to build custom or low-volume items that aren’t being mass manufactured. There are many very real opportunities for 3D printing in China, from product design and manufacture of 3D printers and printing materials, bioprinting to 3D printing services provided as an export.

Reference: Emerging Market Analysis: China’s Top 10 Technology Trends in 2014 (You need sign in to view this report).

The top three mobile maps in China are Baidu Maps, Baidu Navigation and Google Maps, according to a survey conducted by Chinese research company iResearch.

The same survey revealed the top three applications of mobile maps are: looking for directions, route navigation, and searching for unknown locations.

The top  map brand is Baidu Maps, followed by Gaode Maps and Google Maps. Gaode reached an agreement with Alibaba this April and will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba.

Nielsen also found that FMCG sales in the Chinese market rebounded back to 8% growth in Q1, two percentage points’ increase compared with the same period of last year. Nielsen’s survey indicates that for Chinese consumers across the country, personal digital appliance tops their shopping lists, and is closely followed by home appliances.

Lower tier cities and West China (in particular, mid-west China which includes Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Chongqing and Guangxi) consumer confidence is rising.

Health has become the top concern for all-tier city consumers in Q1, which is closely followed by their concern for income, according to Nielsen.

According to a Microsoft recent blog post, China is generating the second highest number of downloads on Windows Phone from Windows Store.

China’s online advertising market in the first quarter of 2014 reached 29.53 billion yuan (about USD 4.7 billion), down 14.3% from the previous quarter but up 53.1% compared to the same period in the previous year, according to iResearch.

Search ads represent 61.5%, followed by online display ads with 31.8%.

It’s interesting to see how Wechat’s self-managing ad platform performs in this quarter, which is expected to launch this month.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China recently published a report on the Chinese telecom industry in January 2014. The statistics showed that the total users of mobile internet services reached 838 million in January 2014, accounting for 67.8% of all mobile phone users. Mobile internet traffic also saw a remarkable YoY increase of 46.9% in January, amounting to 133 million G in total and 165.1 M per capita, of which 80.8% was generated from mobile phone connection.

According to the MIIT report, the net increase of telephone users nationwide was 4.976 million, bringing the total number up to 1.501 billion. Fixed broadband internet users also increased by 2.264 million, a biggest net increase in the past 9 months which brought the total number to 191 million.

Driven by 3G technologies, the number of mobile phone users increased by 6.157 million in January, making it 1.235 billion in total nationwide. 3G mobile phone users increased by 17.627 million to 419 million, setting a new record of net monthly increase and in the mean time, bringing the percentage of 3G users among all mobile phone users up by 2.3 percentage point to 33.9%. Among the 419 million 3G users, 49% used TD, an increase of 1.4 percentage point from the end of last year.

By contrast, the user base of 2G mobile internet shrank to 528 million in the same month. As 2G users upgraded to 3G internet, the percentage of 2G users among all mobile internet users decreased to 42.8% from 44.8% at the end of last year.

China MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) published its C-BPI report on March 30, 2014. The C-BPI report covered 178 industries and 8,500 mainstream brands.

2014 C-BPI report interviewed 13,500 consumers in 30 cities from August 2013 to January 2014, which fully uncovered 14 industries including FMCG, durable consumer goods, wholesale and retail, finance and internet services, etc. C-BPI is a brand power index to measure influence on Chinese consumers’ purchasing behaviors.

This year’s C-BPI found out that 65% of 178 industries’ top brands were domestic brands (Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan included), dropping 1 percentage point compared to last year. The rest 35% were owned by international brands. Among the top 115 domestic brands, Beijing and Guangdong tied for the top one with most brands, each accounted for 25%; followed by Shanghai with 11%. Among the top 63 international brands, American brands accounted for 52%, followed by Germany with 10%, South Korea, Japan and Holland tied for the third place and each accounted for 6%.

In FMCG industry, domestic brands and international brands accounted for 53% and 47%, and domestic brands’ percentage increased by 1%.

In durable consumer goods industry, domestic brands accounted for 56%, decreasing by 3%.

In service industry, domestic brands accounted for 90%. Although dropped by 4%, domestic brands still had dominant advantages.

In 105 industries investigated by C-BPI for consecutive four years, there were 75 brands in total (71%) won top brand for consecutive four years. FMCG had 43 brands, durable consumer goods had 16 brands and service industry had 16 brands.

The advantages of the leading brand in industry reflected the competition intensity. If the gap between the first and second brands is greater than 100 points, it indicates dominant advantages of the leading brand. If the gap is lower than 50 points, it indicates weak advantages of the leading brand. If the gap is between 50 to 100 points, it means the general advantages of the leading brand.

Among 170 brands investigated both in 2013 and 2014, there were 56% top brands had dominant advantages in 2013. While the percentage dropped to 48% in 2014. Top brands which had weak dominant advantages increased from 21% in 2013 to 22% in 2014. It means the competition intensified in 2014.

In the 170 brands, there were 153 brands (90%) championed for consecutive two years of which 67 brands remained dominant advantages.

In the past year, 15 brands changed from general or weak advantages to dominant advantages, including Sina Weibo and Ctrip. It’s also notable that 48 brands remained weak advantages for consecutive two years, which means their leading status was not stable and they should focus on brand strategy. Besides, 23 dominant brands changed from dominant advantages to general or weak advantages, these brands need to adopt aggressive strategies to compete with their competitors.

In 2014, most of brands championed for consecutive two years, however, 17 brands (10%) did not. The percentage from 2011 to 2012 was 17%, and from 2012 to 2013 was 15%, which indicated the percentage of brands which did not champion for consecutive two years was dropping in the past three years. Top brands cared more about brand maintenance.

iResearch data showed that China mobile phones online sales volume reached 42.8 million and online sales hit 66.39 billion yuan (USD 10.74 billion) in 2013, with over 40% YoY increase. Mobile sale peaked during Double 11 promotion, sold out 4.48 million on November 11, 2013.

Many mobile phone manufacturers laid emphasis on online channels, at present, except for manufacturers’ official websites, B2C platforms were the main channels for mobile phone online selling. On one hand, B2C enterprises’ price war drew consumers’ attention to their websites, on the other hand, Chinese consumers were more likely to purchase “small” electronics online. Mobile phone as the most frequently used electronics had the highest consumer retention. These were the main reasons why mobile online sales went up rapidly.

According to iResearch, domestic brands were favored in online mobile phone selling. In 2013, total domestic mobile phones sold online reached 23.04 million, international mobile phones sold out 19.76 million online.

The ranking of online mobile phone sales volume in main B2C platforms (Xiaomi official website excluded) in 2013 showed that Samsung led the online market with 20% share, if Xiaomi official website included, Xiaomi ranked the top with 23.9%, Samsung dropped to the second with 16%.

According to the latest data released by iResearch, in February 2014, Chinese fashion websites daily user coverage reached 9.18 million. PCLADY ranked the first with average 970,000 daily user coverage and 0.4% penetration rate, followed by YOKA with 950,000 daily user coverage and 0.4% penetration. Onlylady ranked the third with 790,000 daily user coverage and 0.3% penetration rate.

The data also showed the monthly effective viewing time of Chinese fashion websites reached 14.45 million hours. MPLIFE had the highest monthly effective viewing time of 2.81 million hours, accounted for 19.5% of total. Followed by YOKA and SELF.

Didi Taxi, a popular Chinese taxi-hailing mobile app backed by Tencent, released its data on Wechat Official Account (didi-taxi) on March 31, 2014. By March 27, the bonus for Didi Taxi app hit 1.4 billion yuan (USD 226.81 million), and its registered users increased to 100 million.

Didi began its bonus plan from Jan 10 in 2014, and its covering cities increased from 32 to 178. The number of daily transactions grew from 320,000 to 5.22 million. During the 77 days bonus, the number of users increased from 22 million to 100 million at the cost of 1.4 billion yuan, which means the average cost of attracting a Didi user was about 18 yuan (USD 2.92). Because Didi is bundled with WeChat payment, therefore, WeChat payment users reached also 100 million.

WeChat (Didi) VS Alipay (Kuaidi)

In the past two months, Didi and Kuaidi (backed by Alibaba) started a “bonus” war for attracting users. The battle heated in February, the bonus for each customer reached 12 yuan (USD 1.94) on February 18, the highest bonus hit 20 yuan (USD 3.24) for customer and 15 yuan (USD 2.43) per transaction for driver. Then the bonus began dropping in March, since March 22, the bonus for customer dropped to 5 yuan (USD 0.81) in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other six cities, the rest dropped to 3 yuan (USD 0.49).

Didi has spent 1.4 billion yuan, but Kuaidi has not published its data yet. The battle between Didi and Kuaidi taxi apps actually was the battle of WeChat payment and Alipay. Besides support in cash, WeChat also opened API to Didi taxi, Kuaidi also cooperated with Alibaba’s O2O business to strengthen its competitiveness.

As a matter of fact, though the bonus plan seems expensive, subscriber acquisition cost (SAC) was not high at all compared to usual 40 to 50 yuan (USD 6.48 to 8.10). For WeChat, Didi app also helped increasing WeChat payment users and cultivating mobile payment habit.

Problems Caused by Bonus Plan

The bonus plan attracted public attention and participation rapidly, but it also caused many problems such as:

• The taxi drivers became discriminated towards customers, they tended to refuse picking up customers who did not use mobile taxi app Didi or Kuaidi.
• Some customers’ mobile internet connection was poor or they forgot payment password.
• The explosive user growth led to mobile app break down.
• Some drivers would risk violating traffic law to snap the order while driving.

The decreasing bonus certainly affected customers and drivers’ enthusiasm in using taxi-hailing app, they said they would decrease the using frequency but they would continue using it.

China digital advertising market kept increasing fast in 2013. The multi-screen media environment was much more common in Chinese netizen’s life, and the cross-screen integration became the focus point for advertisers.

According to iResearch online advertiser monitoring tools iAdTracker, following are trend and analysis of some specific video, weibo and news media (as “the three media” below) advertising spending on PC and mobile APP. This will help you understand the industry pattern and trend about multi-screen investment.

Data showed that from January to November in 2013, the brand online advertising revenue of the three media on PC client reached 13.74 billion Yuan (USD 2.23 billion).  The revenue rose 50.9% from January to November. The advertising spending on mobile APP was relatively limited compared to the spending on PC, but its growth rate was much higher than PC’s. The average QoQ growth rate of spending on APP reached 25.1%; the growth was 72.8% in July with the help of some leading brands.

According to the industry statistics by iAdTracker, toiletry advertising (estimation) spending took up 62.6% of the three media APP advertising market, followed by food & beverage. Traditional popular industries on PC client such as transportation, internet service and financial service had small market shares, representing a significant difference between two screen markets. The top 3 advertising industry on PC are: transportation with 19.8%, food & beverage with 16.6% and internet service with 15.0%

For advertisers on mobile APP, about half of the top 10 were in the toiletry industry. Marubi ranked the first, showing a mature strategy on mobile. High-end skin care brands like Chanel, Estee Lauder also performed well.

Mobile internet brought new marketing points for consumption goods market. As daily chemicals retail market has a demand for consumer communication and in-time product information, this market seems to walk ahead. The mobile APPs of the three media (video, weibo and news) has very social and sticky users, which matches the potential consumer characters of this industry. APP advertising uses fragmentary time to push eye-catching and caring  discount information or brand story, or even other services. This may be a bright spot in interactive advertising market.

According to Mobile Industry Statistic Report in 2013 released by Tencent, there would be more users choosing Android device in the coming year. As for now, Android devices with large screen and high definition video were becoming the mainstream of the increasing Android market. For Apple, the newest iOS7  spread rapidly among “iFans” (fans of Apple products). At the same time, iOS7 reduced the jailbreak rate of iOS, representing a future of legitimate game.

The report shows that in China mobile device market, the share of Android was 73.3% and iOS accounted for 24.7%. Among all Google Android devices, more than 70% devices ran Android 4.0 or latter versions. The former mainstream Gingerbread (Andorid 2.3) which had about half market share one year ago fell to 15% now and kept decreasing. As Jelly Bean (Android 4.1 and 4.2) gained growing share on Android devices, there would be more low-end devices running 4.0 or above versions.

Among iOS devices, most iOS5 and iOS6 users chose to upgrade when iOS7 released. The golden iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C performed quite good in mobile market, so Apple and China Mobile signed a cooperation agreement. Benefited from the cooperation with mobile operator, iOS7 would gain higher penetration in the future. By December 2013, the newest version iOS 7.0.4 had accounted for over 40% of market.

Meanwhile, the monopoly status of Android was strengthened, encroaching iOS market share bit by bit. Every time one Android user turned to iOS, 5 iOS users would turn to Android.

As more large screen Android devices came out in the market, many Apple fans left iOS for Android. The statistic showed that users went after large screen mobile phones for watching video, as 5-inch devices became popular. It was said that Apple also intend to launch 4.8 inch iPhone 6 this year.

Samsung was still the leader of China Android market with about 30% market share, according to report. Domestic mobile brands such as Xiaomi (12%), Huawei (7%), Lenovo (6.5%), Vivo (6%), OPPO (4%), Shanzhai Phones (China pirated brands, 4%) and Coolpad(4%) also performed well. The market share of domestic Android devices totaled 45%. As domestic smartphones become popular, their price advantage  would attract more users.

At present, 5-inch HD screen device was the majority in Android market. However, from the view of whole market, the leader was still low resolution devices. High-end Android devices with HD (1920*1080) screen, which was the primary resolution of 5-inch screen, rose to the top 5.

In terms of jailbreak, the jailbreak rate of iOS7 was far below iOS5 (61%) and iOS6 (28%), less than 5%. The monthly jailbreak rate kept decrease since iOS7 launched. Analysis suggested that jailbreak would be the less popular due to distribution channel improvement and operating system upgrading.

Sun Yat-sen University together with CreditEase started a research project-Guangdong Financial Environment Research-in August 2013, which focused on mass affluent finance management in Guangdong province and rural area financial development.

One Thirds of Mass Affluent Were From Private Enterprises

Statistics revealed that Chinese mass affluent grew larger in recent two years. In 2010, mass affluent reached 7.94 million. In 2012, the number increased to 10.26 million, up 29.2% in two years. It was expected to reach 12.02 million by the end of 2013. The average investable assets was around 1.33 million yuan (USD 218,000).

As the number of mass affluent grew, how to preserve and increase wealth rose to the crucial problem for this group. One professor from Sun Yat-sen University said that Guangdong which accounted for one eighth of total GDP in China was the biggest province in economic scale and financial development. Guangdong province had the most active private business entities, therefore cultivated a large quantity of mass affluents.

Mass affluent refers to the middle class with investable assets between USD 100,000 to 1 million. Investable assets include cash, CD, stock, money fund, bond, insurance and other financial products, and investment property.

In 2012, Chinese investable assets added up to 83.1 trillion yuan (USD 13.61 trillion), increasing 13.7% compared with 2011.

The research showed that 43.1% of the mass affluent families with over 600,000 yuan (USD 98,250) had a total annual income between 110,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan (USD 18,000 to 81,875) in 2012. 33.9% of these families’ annual income was between 510,000 yuan to 1 million yuan (USD 83,513 to 163,751), and 18.3% had an annual income between 1.01 million to 5 million yuan (USD 165,388 to 818,753). We came to the conclusion that mass affluent in Guangdong province had pretty good income sources.

It was also found out that mass affluent in Guangdong mostly worked in finance and trading industries. Finance industry accounted for 25%, ranking the top. Followed by trading, with 14%. Manufacturing occupied 12%, while real estate created 8% mass affluent. In addition, about 13% of mass affluent came from organizations, i.e. governments and public institutions. From the perspective of the nature of business, 35% of mass affluent were from private enterprises and 31% were from state-owned enterprises and public institutions. 25% were from foreign and joint venture enterprises. From the perspective of the occupation, senior manager accounted for 39%, and staff accounted for 22%. While, surprisingly, entrepreneur only represented 19% of mass affluent in Guangdong province.

72.5% of Wealth Came From Salary and Dividend

Mass affluent’s wealth came from a variety of sources, which mainly was salary, dividend, enterprise income, financial investment, real estate investment, property inheritance, freelance income. The major wealth of 72.5% families from Guangdong province came from salary and dividend.

Mass affluent class with different investable asset size had basically the same structure of wealth sources, notably, people with investable asset between 3 to 6 million yuan (USD 490,566 to 981,133) had lower percentage of salary and higher enterprise income in their wealth sources compared with people who owned between 600,000 yuan to 3 million yuan (USD 98,113 to 490,566).

Of all the respondents in this survey, total assets of the family between 600,000 yuan to 3 million yuan (USD 98,113 to 490,566) accounted for 43%, 30.9% were between 3 to 6 million yuan (USD 490,566 to 981,133) and 12.2% were between 6 to 10 million yuan (USD 981,133 to 1.64 million). About 8.8% had over 10 million yuan (USD 1.64 million) total assets.

A large number of mass affluent’s assets ranged from 600,000 to 6 million yuan (USD 98,113 to 981,133). From the aspect of the total assets structure, 46.5% of total assets were consisted of real estate valuation, and 15.1% were consisted of cash and CD, 12.1% were consisted of industrial investment value. The rest were consisted of durable consumer goods, stock, bond, foreign exchange future and collection.

Mass affluent in Guangdong preferred investing real estate. 42.8% mass affluent owned one house, while 34.8% had two houses. Families with three and above houses accounted for 17.5%. The analysis of mass affluent mortgage revealed that 57.7% of real estate investors didn’t have mortgage, and 24% of these families’ mortgage was smaller than one fourths of their property value. 13.7% of families’ mortgage ranged from 25% to 50% of property value, merely 4.6% of families’ mortgage was more than 50%.

Except for real estate investment, cash and CD ranked the top. Financial investment only accounted for 11.3%, which indicated passive attitudes of mass affluent towards financial investment.

Mass Affluent Favored Stock and Real Estate

This research showed that stock and real estate were the favored investment products of mass affluent in Guangdong. Other products included money fund, financial products of banks, gold and foreign exchange.

For people with different assets, their investment products tended to differ. Mass affluent with 600,000 to 3 million yuan (USD 98,113 to 490,566) assets mainly chose stock and financial products of banks, during which 48.54% put more money in stock and 34.83% put it in financial products of banks. Mass affluent with 3 to 6 million yuan (USD 490,566 to 981,133) assets preferred to invest in stock market and real estate with 53.13% and 45%.

Though the international economic environment of 2013 was complex and internal growth slowed down, still 89.45% mass affluent chose to invest with idle funds. 34.83% even said they would increase investment in the risky financial market in 2013.

Mass affluent with with 600,000 to 3 million yuan (USD 98,113 to 490,566) investable assets would use 60% of idle funds to invest, with 12.81% which was 3 percentage points higher than those with 3 to 6 million yuan (USD 490,566 to 981,133) investable assets.

Stock market experienced a downturn in recent two years, but it’s high ROA attracted mass affluent in Guangdong. Real estate was the second choice of mass affluent, despite the government tried to stabilize housing price. Money fund was also a very important investment choice for mass affluent, with 41.11%.

Overseas Investment

As their wealth grew, part of mass affluent in Guangdong began investing overseas.

This research found out that mass affluent class in Guangdong generally had low needs of overseas investment and relatively high needs of overseas products and services. More than half of mass affluent’s knowledge of overseas investment were quite limited, they had low risk preference.

2.47% of respondents in this survey were emigrants, and about 16.01% prepared to move overseas. Still, 80% didn’t want to become emigrants.

Although most of mass affluent didn’t think about moving to foreign countries, 75% of them considered sending their children to study abroad. Expenditure on studying abroad was a large part for mass affluent. North America was the first choice of studying abroad, accounted for 49.25%. Europe ranked the second with 18.53%. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan ranked the third with 17.27%.

According to the research, among those who owned overseas assets, 57.89% had less than 20% overseas assets. 25.26% acquired overseas assets which occupied 20% to 40% of their total assets. Besides, 9.67% had 40% to 60% overseas assets and 7.08% had over 60% overseas assets.

North America was the top overseas investment destination, accounted for about one thirds. Europe occupied 13.83% of overseas investment, Aisa occupied 12.77%. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan together occupied 6.64%. Overseas investment mainly included stock, gold, foreign exchange and future. Stock was the largest part, with 34.64%. Gold, foreign exchange and future accounted for 19.74%, real estate accounted for 13.45%.

 9.88% Chose Professional Asset Management Agencies

Most of respondents in this survey said they and their families managed their assets, merely 9.88% said they chose professional asset management agencies.

Professor Zhou from Sun Yat-sen University commented on this phenomenon that most mass affluent in Guangdong did not consider their assets were large enough to require professional asset management services. What’s more, asset management service cost, and many people don’t trust their wealth to strangers. Mass affluent were still not familiar with asset management services though there were plenty of financial products out there.

Only 36.2% thought they needed asset management services, most people preferred to manage their assets by themselves. As for the knowledge of different asset management agencies, 48% knew about security companies’ asset management. 33.5% knew about private banks’ financial products, and 29.5% knew about insurance companies’ finance management. 25.8% said they understood third-parties’ asset management services.

The survey result showed that 23.2% mass affluent in Guangdong were using financial products of asset management agencies. Among those who accepted financial services, 47% chose security companies, 30.9% chose private banks, 26.5% chose insurance companies, 31.7% chose third-parties and 22.6% chose two and above agencies. Compared with previous report on China mass affluent, mass affluent in Guangdong had a lower percentage in consulting asset management agencies than national average of 73.7%. But they had higher preference of security companies than national average of 14.1%.

Professor Zhou analysed that the difference in the choice of asset management agencies indicated that mass affluent in Guangdong were more likely to accept different financial products. Banks had built a reliable public image in China as a traditional financial institute, therefore, private banks had the highest acceptance rate on national basis. Guangdong was the regional finance center in China, security companies, insurance companies and third-party finance institutes all grasped a part of market. Cantonese had a variety of choices for asset management.

When it comes to financial management advice, most would trust families, relatives and friends or decide on their own rather than seeking help from professionals. 51.5% of respondents trusted families, relatives and friends recommendation, 31.5% said that they chose the asset management agencies because their families or relatives and friends worked there. 21.2% knew the agencies through TV or online reports and advertising. 27.3% had attended these agencies’ lectures and activities, or had been visited by their account managers.

Over 80% said they knew about these financial management agencies because of families, relatives and friends. Media and account managers visit turned out to be ineffective, financial agencies should put more efforts on marketing.

Mass affluent admitted that their priority when choosing a professional asset management agency were ROA and profession. 54.6% considered about the flexibility of products and expected ROA, 38.8% thought about past performance of the product. 38.1% thought profession more important, and 37.3% focused on the brand influence of the agency.

Chinese consumers focused mostly on ROA when choosing an asset management agency, and the brand influence of the agency was also built on past performance. The research also found out that consumers didn’t pay attention to the service attitude and comprehensiveness of consulting information. It may be that financial management is a high-end service which most of agencies have good service attitude with little difference. Overseas investment convenience was not one of the important factors, once again proved that Chinese mass affluent preferred to build their asset portfolio in China.

Professor Zhou regarded that financial management service market in Guangdong was not mature yet, most consumers didn’t realize the value of professional finance management. Guangdong professional asset management market had huge potential in the future.

According to the mobility report released by Ericsson, the global mobile subscriptions increased 110 million in the third quarter, reaching about 6.6 billion in Q3 2013. The subscription kept growing steadily, with the YoY growth of 7% and QoQ growth of 2%.

APCA (excluding China and India) ranked the first with 1,319 million subscriptions, followed by China with 1,201 million. The mobile subscription in other regions were all below 1,000 million. In terms of new mobile subscriptions, China, Africa and APCA (excluding China and India) occupied the top three. China added 30 million subscriptions, accounting for 25% of global net addition.

However, the penetration in China was 88%, slightly lower than the global average of 92%. Central and Eastern Europe had the highest penetration of 139%, and Western Europe ranked the second with 125%. The number was quite close in Middle East, APCA and North America.

The smartphone accounted for 55% of all mobile phones sold in Q3 2013, showing an upward trend compared to 40% for 2012. Global mobile broadband subscriptions grew by about 40% annually, and was predicted to exceed 2 billion in 2013. LTE (Long Term Evolution) subscription has hit 150 million with 25 million addition in Q3 2013, increasing rapidly. Ericsson made a forecast that China would add substantial LTE subscription during the period between 2013 to 2019, and reach over 700 million by the end of the forecast period.

For mobile traffic, with the rapid growth of subscriptions, Asia Pacific would take a large proportion of the total mobile traffic both in 2013 and 2019. China alone was expected to increase over 500 million mobile subscriptions during the period.

Here are 14 charts selected from iResearch annual report of China internet. Our selection may help you understand the development and status of China internet better.

Internet Economy

The scale of China internet economy hit 600.41 billion Yuan (USD 99 billion), maintaining a fast increase. Transaction of mobile segments such as mobile search and mobile payment skyrocketed in 2013.

Mobile Internet

The market size of China mobile internet kept a considerable growth rate. Mobile netizen will surpass PC netizen to make mobile the main internet terminal device.

E-Commerce

China mobile shopping market transaction reached 167.64 billion (USD 27.459 billion) in 2013 with fast growing penetration. Mobile Taobao, Jingdong and Tencent ECC continued to lead the mobile shopping market.

Payment

A new upsurge of third-party payment was coming owing to the in-depth cooperation with traditional finance. The GMV (gross merchandise volume) of mobile payment exploded in 2013. There was an intense competition for reverse-O2O (an offline to online model by reversing online to offline) market between companies.

Online Advertising

The market size was predicted to reach 110 billion Yuan(USD 18.14 billion). In the same period,the market size of search advertising had a YoY growth rate of 34.9%.

Online Game

The mobile client was predicted to take a 20.6% market share, surpassing browser game in 2014. Android accounted for 53.2% of mobile game market, followed by iOS with 44.4%.

Online Video

The online video market maintained rapid growth in 2013, and was expected to reach 36.6 billion Yuan in 2017.

GlobalWebIndex data showed that 65% of netizen worldwide accessed internet via mobile phone, while the percentage was even higher in specific country-China had 83% mobile internet penetration with approximately 383 million netizens.

China had the highest tablet internet penetration as well, reaching 39% in Q4 2013.

In tablet and mobile phone markets, notably there were several burgeoning internet markets in the top 10 lists. However, developed market such as Sweden ranked the fifth in mobile internet, and tablet usage in USA and UK were quite common. These data once again indicated portable internet access devices were rapidly accepted by burgeoning markets.

According to a study from Fortune Character Institute, Chinese would buy 47% of the luxury products worldwide in 2013. The November 11th, also known as Chinese Bachelor Day, had become a shopping carnival for Chinese netizens to satisfy their shopping desire. It’s even reported that a lady from Zhejiang Province bought a 13.3g diamond ring on that day. Zealousness for luxury products has made China the biggest market place. Now let us take a glance of Chinese luxury purchasing customers and their interests.

From the first chart, it shows that 6.34% more female concerned about luxury products than male.
Chinese younger generation tended to pay more attention to the luxury product. 19-30 years old customers accounted for almost 60%.

Chinese female customers tended to be younger. Below 18 years old, there are 11.33% more female than male.

Chinese luxury consumers frequently visited news media, portal media and female media.

They liked fashion and emphasized life quality. They would pay attention to travel, sport, clothes, IT products and luxury autos.

Chinese luxury consumers preferred to travel abroad.

Chinese loved SUV and luxury cars .

As overseas purchasing was becoming popular, logistics industry was growing as well.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun announced Xiaomi’s performance in 2013 on January 2, 2014. In Lei Jun’s email to staff, he revealed Xiaomi sold out 18.7 million smartphones in 2013, increasing 160%. Xiaomi’s revenue (including tax) reached 31.6 billion yuan (USD 5.18 billion), growing 150% in 2013. In December alone, Xiaomi sold 32.25 million mobile phones, achieving 5.3 billion yuan (USD 868 million) revenue.

Xiaomi launched many products in 2013, including Xiaomi 3, Xiaomi hongmi, MiTV, Xiaomi TV Box, Xiaomi WiFi Router, etc. CEO Lei Jun declared that the priority of the company in 2014 was to improve productivity. He promised to all Xiaomi fans that they would sell 40 million mobile phones in 2014.

Xiaomi mobile operating system MIUI’s user broke 30 million. In December 2013, Xiaomi MIUI developers shared revenue surpassed 18 million yuan (USD 2.95 million), which indicated that Xiao had built its own open operating platform. Besides, Xiaomi accessories achieved good performance in 2013, with over 1 billion yuan (USD 163.78 million) revenue.

Xiaomi had built 6 warehouse centers, 18 flagship stores and 436 repair centers in 2013. Xiaomi improved their logistics services, and began entering overseas market. Its debut in Hong Kong and Taiwan was successful. In 2013, Hugo Barra, former Google vice president for Android, joined Xiaomi to help its globalization plan.

At the beginning, Xiaomi experienced severe short supply, with merely 10,000 monthly mobile phones productivity. By the end of 2013, the monthly productivity rose to 3 million. Although its growing speed was extremely fast in consumer electronics industry, still, a lot of Xiaomi fans could not purchase Xiaomi smartphones.

3 years after its set up, Xiaomi achieved huge success. Xiaomi’s business model was widely spoken of within IT industry, which they focused on there aspects. First, Xiaomi laid emphasis on being friends with consumers, consumers’ suggestions or ideas could reach Xiaomi company and gained recognition by engineers. The participation in the making of Xiaomi products inspired Xiaomi fans to keep following the company’s updates. Second, Xiaomi aimed at creating high quality and high cost performance products, which was the base of business model and marketing strategies. Third, Xiaomi valued cooperation with partners such as Foxconn, Inventec Appliances, Qualcomm, etc.

Total number of China’s annual delivery packages might rank the number one in the world in 2013, according to China Post official data. By the end of November, China packages delivery reached 8.12 billion in 2013.

In November 2013, the number of Express Delivery packages hit 1.09 billion, up 61.9% compared to 2012. China Post estimated that the total number of Express Delivery packages was about to reach 9 billion in 2013.

During Double 11 promotion period this year, packages increased to 346 million, 73% higher than that of 2012. On November 13, the number of packages processed in the day hit the highest 65.17 million, with 85% YoY increase. Express Delivery industry had experienced over 50% growth rate for 33 months consecutively. Analysts predicted that national packages number was very likely to hit 9 billion, as December is a traditional shopping month. On average, each Chinese received 6-7 packages in 2013.

The boom of e-commerce drove the rapid growth of Express Delivery industry, in returns, it also helped e-commerce develop. In November, retail sales of social consumer goods increased 13.7% annually, retail sales YoY increase rose faster to 14.3%. A large part of the newly increased retail sales came from online shopping. Chinese online shoppers was estimated to hit 310 million, 70% online shopping transactions required Express Delivery service.

Though Express Delivery is growing at a fast pace, competition within the industry became extremely intense. In 2013, many Express Delivery companies involved in price war, profit rate fell to 5% and kept falling. A lot of companies gave up profits to gain market share during Double 11 promotion period, making the logistics peak period unprofitable.

Baidu published its third quarter mobile internet development report recently, according to the report, Android daily active users reached 270 million. Growth rate in 2013 slowed down, due to seasonal factors, Q3 quarterly growth rate climbed back to 13%.

Though android mobile phone sales kept growing, about half of its growth was from android users replacing their old devices.

By Q3 2013, android users from tier three and four cities and rural area accounted for 45% together, 10% higher than that of 2012. It means most of new users this year were from these area.

30% of the new daily active users in Q3 2013 were from rural area users and migrant workers, becoming a new driving force. College students android devices purchasing increased largely in Q3 because of a large number of freshmen, this trend would not continue in the last quarter.

Android users spent 46% of time connecting internet via Wi-Fi, 31% via 2G and 23% via 3G.

44% users spent more than 70% of their time using Wi-Fi.

In mobile search market, most of traffic were from 2G and 3G, Wi-Fi accounted for a small percentage of 38%. However, in online video market, Wi-Fi accounted for 80% of traffic.

In Q3 2012, 11% of users downloaded at least one app per day. And in Q3 2013, it grew to 15%.

Android users downloaded averagely 8.2 new apps monthly in Q3 2013, and the number increased to 10.2 in Q3 2013.

About 60% of users downloaded apps through mobile assistant app like 91, which was the main channel for getting apps online.

For offline app channels, 48% would copy other people’s installation apk and 44% would ask for help from mobile stores.

Only 7% of white collar and college students would get app offline, while the percentage in urban migrant workers and rural area users was 14% in Q3 2013.

The top 5 categories of mobile app installations is shown above, which were life and entertainment tools, social and communication, game and online video.

Affected by summer vacation, app downloads in Q3 was a little different. Game ranked top with 7.7 apps per user, followed by online video with 4.4.

The top 5 internet companies in regards of average app installations per user were Tencent, Baidu, Sohu, Sina and Xiaomi. Android users each averagely installed 3.6 Tencent apps.

Also affected by high student activity in summer vacation, android users daily average usage time reached 160 mins/day peak in August, it dropped a little in September 2013. It increased 17% compared to Q3 2012.

Android users averagely checked their mobile 53 times per day, the frequency was extremely high in the afternoon. For example, between 2pm to 5pm, users checked about 11 times in Q3 2013.

Social and communication apps had high using frequency and user accounts, relatively, it had high Daily Active User (DAU). Life and entertainment apps ranked the second. Thought it neither had high using frequency nor user accounts, it had a large number of apps in this category. Search engine and game had high growth rate in the categories with over 100 million DAU.

By Q3 2013, two android apps surpassed 100 million DAU and four surpassed 50 million DAU. Top 10 apps were mainly social and communication apps, input and mobile entrance apps like search engine and browser.

Deducted overlapping users, Tencent and Baidu both surpassed 150 million DAU in Q3 2013. For example, if one uses Baidu input and Baidu video in the same day, it will only be counted once.

Compared to Q3 2012, the total apps installed increased 17 in 2013, however, the apps used daily decreased by 1.3 in Q3 2013. This indicated that the competition in mobile app market would be even more intense.

Games ranked the top in uninstall rate with 28%, because of its short product life circle and many competitors. Life and entertainment tools were low frequency apps, most users uninstalled them after using only once. These kinds of apps were more suitable as light apps, with low uninstall rate of browsers and search engines.

In Q3 2013, Baidu mobile search DAU reached 130 million, 36% used every day.

In Q3 2013, search queries for life services and education both increased by 3.5% compared to 2012, while search queries for book and documents decreased by 2.7%.

Compared to normal mobile Baidu users, those who subscribed to light apps showed high using time and frequency. It proved that light apps could bring better user experience and satisfy consumers needs for instant search.

This is part 4 of a series of posts that walk you through a variety of stats on China credit card users. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

iResearch report of Chinese credit card user behavior gave us an insight on the demographic features of Chinese credit card holders. By of October 2013, most Chinese credit card holders were between the age of 25 to 30, accounted for 33.6% of total users. 25.5% users were between 31 to 35 years old, and 13.3% of users were between 36 to 40 years old. Generally, credit card users had an average higher age than non-credit card users.

Senior consumers had more stable jobs and strong purchasing power and repayment ability than young people, thus they were the main credit card target users.

By October 2013, male credit card holders accounted for 66.2%, 4.8% higher than non-credit card male users. And female credit card users accounted for 33.8%.

Male users had been the main consumers in finance industry, it didn’t change in credit card market. Male users generally had a deeper understanding of finance products and more interest in it, besides, male users tended to have better control over impulse purchasing than female, which made higher male credit card holders.

In November 2013, according to ZDC report, Chinese smartphone market brand awareness basically didn’t change. iPhone 5S ranked the top in product awareness, LG Nexus 5 gained product awareness rapidly and soon ranked in top 10 list. On the whole, the competition grew more intense in smartphone market, especially in android OS market.

Brand Awareness

Samsung ranked top in brand awareness ranking in November with 21.8%, Apple ranked the second with 12.6%. Lenovo remained in the third place with 7.8%. Compared to October, the top 7 brands kept stable, Samsung, Lenovo, Nokia and HTC went up a little while Apple dropped 0.2%. Huawei and Sony Ericsson remained the same with October. LG increased by five places in November because of LG Nexus 5 (16GB). Motorola and Vivo both increased by one place in the rank, while Xiaomi suffered the biggest drop in November.

Product Awareness

iPhone 5S gained 4.2% product awareness in November, ranking the top. Two Samsung smartphones ranked the second and third on the list. On the top 15 smartphones list, Apple was the biggest winner with four smartphones. Samsung had three smartphones on the top 15 list.

Chinese smartphone manufacturers together had 3 smartphones on the list, decreasing 1 compared to October. MX3 ranked the fourth, OPPO N1 and Vivo X3 ranked the 12th and 15th.

The top 15 smartphones were mainly quad-core phones, and 11 out of 15 had 4.5 inches screen size. 14 smartphones installed 8 million and above pixels camera.

Smartphones between 1,000 to 2,000 yuan (USD 163 to 327) gained the highest awareness of 24.4% in November 2013. Price range between 2,001 to 3,000 yuan (USD 327 to 490) awareness hit 20% in November, increasing about 2% monthly. Smartphones between 3,001 to 4,000 yuan (USD 490 to 654) had the largest increase of 6.3%, reaching 18.4%.

ZDC data showed that in November, the number of quad-core smartphones broke 400, gained 52.3% awareness. Single-core and dual-core smartphones’ awareness dropped slightly.

Smartphones with 12 million and above pixels’ awareness kept growing, reaching 28.5%. The rest all dropped in November.

Android’s awareness remained the same, iOS dropped by 0.2%. Notably, Windows Phone’s brand awareness increased by 0.7% to 7.7% in November 2013.

Smartphones with 5 inches and above screen size gained more awareness in November 2013, hitting 24.4%. 4.6-5.0 inches screen size had the highest awareness of 33.4%.

Case Study

In 2013, from January to November, LG brand awareness fluctuated between 2.3% to 2.8%, and the rank remained as 14 or 15. But because of new product LG Nexus 5 entering market in November, LG brand awareness went up to 4.3% and its rank improved to the eighth dramatically.

ZDC data showed that LG had 15 smartphones in the market, and LG Nexus 5 was the newest product and the official Android OS smartphone. From November 1 to 30, LG Nexus 5 brand awareness increased rapidly and remained high since 15th.

This is part 3 of a series of posts that walk you through a variety of stats on China credit card users. Part 1, Part 2, Part 4.

In the past year, Chinese consumers preferred to open a credit card offline, and 43.3% users went to bank branches according to iResearch. Another popular method was door-to-door sales, which accounted for 15.8%.

Bank official websites was the most often used channel to open a credit card online, with 14.5% of total users. Followed by e-bank with 13.5%. The other channels each accounted for less than 5%.

One reason was that Chinese consumers hadn’t get used to online services, what’s more, they had more face-to-face communications with salesperson and gained customized services. Another major reason was few banks offering online credit card applying channels. However, as the rise of e-banks, there would be more people choose e-bank services.

From October 2012 to October 2013, 44.4% Chinese consumers thought credit card should offer more special offers. And 26.8% users would like the banks to increase the usage of credit card points. 14% wanted to increase credit card finance management service, while less than 9% users preferred to issue an electronic credit card or to change the shape of cards.

Due to the fact that Chinese credit card market was still in the early stage, consumers’ needs for improving credit cards remained very basic. The majority of credit card holders wanted to enrich existent services and improve finance management.

This is part 2 of a series of posts that walk you through a variety of stats on China credit card users. Part 1, Part 3, Part 4.

Chinese credit cards market is prosperous, the number of credit card holders increased greatly from 2012 to 2013. According to iResearch, Chinese netizens credit card penetration reached 82% in October 2013.  82% Chinese netizens held at least one credit card, 77.7% netizens were using credit cards currently.

Of all credit cards holders, most people used only one credit card, with 33.8%. 32.7% netizens held two cards. The prosperous of Chinese credit card market was attributed to three major reasons. First, Chinese banks laid big emphasis on credit card business. Second, Chinese consumers gradually accepted the credit card consumption concept, their needs for credit cards grew bigger accordingly. Third, market environment for credit card consumption was mature over years.

By October 2013, 24.9% Chinese credit card holders expressed their concern about credit card security, and 15.9% paid attention to annual fee reduction policies. 15.8% cared about the convenience of credit card repayment.

It showed that Chinese card holders were still in the early stage, focusing mostly on the basis needs of credit cards. Top three factors which brought most attention of Chinese consumers were security, annual fee reduction and repayment convenience. It’s both opportunity and challenge for Chinese banks, for those banks which offered customized and value-added service to credit card holders will expand their market share quickly.

According to iResearch report on China mobile payment user behavior in 2013, in the aspects of mobile payment recognition, only 20.7% of Chinese users knew nothing about mobile payment. Over 70% of users had a certain knowledge of mobile payment. At the same time, 71.2% of users haven’t used mobile payment before, frequently users only accounted for 6.3%.

This high recognition and low usage rate was in accordance with mobile payment growing stage in China market, with mobile internet development and consumer habits changing, mobile payment would enter its fast developing stage. China mobile netizen’s recognition for mobile payment would keep growing, and mobile payment usage rate would increase largely.

Data showed that 17.3% of consumers used mobile payment 1-2 times per month, nearly 8% of consumers used it 3-6 times per month. While only 0.9% used more than 10 times per month. Mobile payment usage low frequency was because offline shopping remained the dominance, though online shopping grew fast in certain user groups.

71.7% of respondents would use mobile payment for phone bill and recharges. 33.9% said they would use mobile payment for daily shopping and 31.5% in tickets booking. Phone bill and recharges were related to mobile, therefore it’s natural for consumers to use mobile payment. Chinese netizen’s shopping habits hadn’t transferred from PC end to mobile end, mobile payment could not replace PC end payment methods in daily shopping and tickets booking. NFC payment would increase consumers’ device update cost, so it was not popular.

29.4% of China mobile netizen were willing to pay for 101-300 yuan (USD 16.52 to 49.06) in a single transaction, 39.1% would pay for over 300 yuan (USD 49.06). Mobile payment users were mainly young people, their incoming limited their spending. Besides, most mobile payment transactions were phone bills and recharges. Considering the money security, most users dared not to invest a large sum in mobile end.

85.9% of users would choose third-party payment enterprises, banks were their second option. Third-party payment enterprises had built up large user base in PC end, their mobile end payment attracted their PC end users and attained user loyalty. Similarly, banks launched their mobile apps one after another, and its penetration rate improved for its credibility and security. China telecom enterprises’ market reactions were too slow and their products were replaceable.

Data showed that convenience, efficiency and security were the top three reasons why consumers chose payment enterprises. Alipay and ICBC bank had accumulated many years of experience and formed competitive advantages.

Chinese mobile netizen had the highest acceptance for mobile payment app/website and SMS payment. The differences between acceptability and usage rate in QR code payment, NFC payment and mobile POS payment were quite big. Consumers had accepted and used mobile payment app/website and SMS payment, as for QR code payment, NFC payment and mobile POS payment, they were not popular yet therefore their acceptability and usage rate were both very low.

60.7% of mobile netizen had heard about Wechat payment, and 69.8% said they basically accept Wechat payment while 11.4% wouldn’t accept it. The launch of Wechat 5.0 gained wide recognition of Wechat payment, what’s more, Wechat had a large registered user base and it’s easier for Wechat payment to be accepted.

52.9% of mobile netizen believed Wechat payment would have a very promising future, while 5.8% didn’t agree. Still, about 40% hold wait and see relatively conservative attitude, because the benefits of Wechat payment still needed to be proved.

The difference of mobile payment was its convenience, 62% of mobile netizen used mobile payment for its convenience. However, users different recognition for mobile payment security may cause by diversed individual experience.

60.2% of Chinese mobile netizen regarded mobile payment safe, only 31.5% and 2.8% thought mobile payment “not so safe ” and “not safe”. Even among users who hadn’t use mobile payment before, half of them thought mobile payment was safe.

Mobile payment security recognition was due to technology and law protection, also due to user experience. With technology and law improvement, mobile payment security gained wide recognition. Still, occasionally, there were security loopholes which led to part of users felt unsafe.

Top two risks in mobile payment were money safety risk and personal information leak risk. These were the most urgent needs of mobile users and the most difficult problems to solve.

78.1% of mobile netizen expected to improve mobile payment security. Users had greater demands to satisfy their personal interests than improving mobile payment itself. Security became the crucial part of mobile payment user experience.

30.9% of mobile netizen were optimistic that mobile payment would be the main payment method in the future, while 64.4% of users were more reserved. 64% said they would use mobile payment, only 2.5% said they would not use.

Mobile payment grew more popular as mobile internet and m-commerce developed, but mobile users needed to be guided and their using habits needed to be cultivated.

According to Counterpoint smartphone market research in October 2013, iPhone 5S became the bestselling smartphone globally. Meanwhile, Apple had occupied one fourths of China smartphone market and its cooperation with China Mobile was about to begin. In October 2013, Apple rose to the third place in China smartphone market, behind Samsung and Lenovo.

iPhone 5S though did not cause long waiting lines outside Apple stores like iPhone 4S, it was more successful than iPhone 5. Apple’s cooperation with China Mobile meant that Apple achieved cooperation with all three big China telecom enterprises. Apple would very likely to rank the first in China smartphone market in December 2013, or January in 2014.

China Mobile announced that there would be 10 million to 40 million iPhone sold through China Mobile in 2014.

According to iResearch, in October 2013, website navigation ranked the top with 120 million daily user coverage and 54.7% penetration rate. Followed closely by webpage search with 120 million daily user coverage and 54.7% penetration rate. Video ranked the third with 86.6 million daily user coverage and 39.4% penetration rate.

Ranked by monthly effective using time, video came to the top with 1.69 billion hours in October 2013. Widescreen movies ranked the second with 880 million hours, SNS ranked the third with 518 million hours. The top three in total accounted for 35.8% of all network services monthly effective using time.

This is part 1 of a series of posts that walk you through a variety of stats on China credit card users. Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

iResearch released China credit card holders behavior report from 2012 to 2013 in the recent. From October 2012 to October 2013, Chinese credit card holders showed a high frequency of credit card usage. 47.2% used credit cards at least once a week, and 40.2% said they used it averagely one to four times per month.

However, although Chinese credit card holders were highly active in the past year, credit card authorized users were optimistic. Only about 17% opened credit card authorized user account, while 56% said they wouldn’t open authorized user account.

By October 2013, Chinese credit card holders who had opened credit card authorized user account and planned to open it occupied 44.4%. The most important reason for opening authorized user account was the convenience for spouse, with 30.3%. 19.7% opened it for the convenience of their relatives. 15.6% opened it to make precautions for losing primary card.

It showed that Chinese card holders were still in the early stage, focusing mostly on the basis needs of credit cards. They had pretty high credit cards using frequency, but few credit card authorized users. Most Chinese credit card holders had little knowledge of the strengths of using credit card authorized user account.

Credit card authorized user account was one of the main feature of credit card, separating it from debit card. According to iResearch survey, about 50% users opened authorized user account for the convenience of spouse and relatives. Credit card authorized user account was still very basic, with no specified features designed for authorized card holders.

In the future, Chinese banks could make innovation on family finance management credit card, this could be huge breakthrough for credit card business.

Ericsson Consumer Lab published Chinese city telecom 2013 report, according to which China mobile broadband had become daily life necessity, more than 70% Chinese smartphone users surfed mobile internet in public transportation. App based mobile broadband services would cover every aspects of city life, improving city life satisfactory.

Besides, Chinese consumers had less experience of mobile broadband service than phone call. While the mobile broadband service user experience laid a huge impact on total user satisfactory degree, unsatisfied consumers possible drop-out rate was five times higher than satisfied consumers.

Consumers’ need for mobile broadband had been increasing, 60% said mobile could offer information they needed instantly; 51% consumers admitted that mobile could offer entertainments and they would feel bored without mobile; besides, 53% consumers regarded being reached at any time anywhere as very important.

Internet access was not limited to home and office anymore. More than half consumers gained internet access outdoor, smartphone users could use data plan at any occasion. Data showed that average daily time spent on transportation in big cities was 1.5 hours, smartphone played a crucial role in filling this period. 70% users would browse webpages on mobile, and social networks. And two thirds of smartphone users would communicate with family and friends on mobile.

In the chart above, it showed the global average and Chinese Wi-Fi and mobile broadband household penetration rate. Chinese mobile broadband household penetration rate increased 64% in two years, from 14% in 2011 to 23% in 2013. And Chinese Wi-Fi household penetration rate increased 600% within two years.

Consumers attitudes toward data plan changed over time, 18% Chinese consumers thought data plan could replace phone call and SMS. Among smartphone users, the percentage reached almost 30%. In the past year, 80% consumers used IM service everyday, more than one thirds of consumers reduced SMS usage.

The survey of Chinese mobile broadband satisfactory showed that price to be the biggest barrier, 69% smartphone users said that data plan price was still expensive. Call quality satisfactory degree surpassed mobile broadband speed, and customized service was the third most concerned aspect.

iResearch released its core data report in Q3 2013, according to which the number of China internet user went up a little in Q3, having reached 480 million in September.

Internet services user coverage in September all dropped compared to June 2013, video and page search remained top with 430 million user coverage.

China internet user monthly effective time spent increased 5.8% in Q3 compared to Q2 2013, it went up in July and August and down a little in September.

Video watching time kept growing four quarters in a row, ranking the first with 5.07 billion hours effective watching time in Q3 2013. Effective time spent on social communities increased greatly, surpassing Weibo to be the sixth. SNS viewting time continued to drop in Q3, but the decreasing rate slowed down.

Average internet usage days per month dropped 1.5% quarterly in Q3, with 15.2 days.

Chinese internet users spent averagely 18.7 hours per month in Q3 2013, growing by 5%. In August, average time on internet monthly reached 19.4 hours, which was the highest of 2013.

Instant Messaging quarterly user coverage reached 480 million, with 97.0% penetration rate and high user stickiness.

In September, Tencent QQ and Ali wangwang monthly user coverage kept growing. Tencent QQ dominated 86.5% market share in quarterly effective using time, Ali wangwang ranked the second with 6.4%.

China IM effective usage time dropped by 7.3% to 11.15 billion hours in Q3 2013.

NPD’s newest Smartphone Quarterly report released on November 25 2013 estimated the smartphone sales would be 1.8 billion in 2017, 82% of total mobile phones. In Q3 2013, smartphone penetration rate was 55%, and the compound annual growth rate in the next five years would reach 21% while non-smartphone would decrease at an annual rate of 16%.

A large part of the growth of smartphone in the next five years will come from Asia-Pacific area, especially China. Smartphone sales was expected to increase 63% in 2013, and China would occupy 30% global smartphone market in 2017. NPD DisplaySearch analyst Tina Teng said that international smartphone brands and entrance-level smartphone drove the growth of smartphone in new markets. As the price of smartphone dropped, more and more smartphone fresh users would change their mobile to a higher-class smartphone.

The most popular screen size in 2017 might be between 4 to 4.9 inches, but smartphone with over 5 inches screen would occupy 38% market share by volume. Smartphone with HD screen was estimated to own 43% market in 2017. And quad-HD screen smartphone will be launched in 2014, it might occupy 16% market in 2017.

4G smartphone would continue to occupy more market share with global internet speeding up, it would own 41% of smartphone sales in 2017. 3G would still own 51% of smartphone market by volume in 2017.