China’s internet users are having more fun

Sam Flemming

by Fons1 via FlickrCatching up with some interesting pieces of information left over from last week. The Wall Street Journal quoted research suggesting that compared to other countries, China’s internet users have more fun.

“Web 2.0 is far more advanced in Asia, and in China, than in the U.S. and Europe,” says Bernice Klaassen, head of interactive research at TNS Singapore. In Western countries, about 1% of users create online content, about 10% participate through methods like comments or discussions and the rest are lurkers,” he says. Meanwhile, in China, Mr. Klaassen says the proportion of active participants is closer to 50%, with a significantly greater share of Web users blogging regularly, participating in online forums, and sharing video and music.

Perhaps not surprisingly, being so active takes more time. On average, respondents from China said they spend 44% of their free time online. Americans only spent an average of 30% of their leisure time using the Internet.

That tails very well with research done by Sam Flemming‘s CIC, also last week, here in the China Web2.0 Review, He described the internet in China, compared to the internet in the US, as “more active, more vibrant”.

More Chinese use the internet to express their personal opinions, and they do it differently compared to what they would do in their offline life. Many more Chinese users go to the internet to discuss their purchases and many more contribute content to the internet.

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Sam Flemming is one of the leading voices on China’s internet and part of the China Speakers Bureau. When you are interested in having him as a speaker, do get in touch.