Internet Usage in China - Case Study Example

INTERNET USAGE IN CHINA Student’s Name Course Professor’s Name University City (State) Date Table of Contents Internet Usage in China 3 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Chinese Internet Environments 5 2.1 Internet Access Environment 5 2.2 Internet Security Environment 6 2.3 Government Regulations 7 3.0 Impacts of Social Media on Chinese People 8 4.0 China Business Environments 11 4.1The Social Media Scene in China 11 4.2 Social Commerce 12 4.3 China’s Electronic Commerce 12 5.0 Conclusion 15 Reference List 17 Internet Usage in China 1.0 Introduction According to McKirdy (2015), China is the fastest growing country regarding internet usage. The population that is online in China is more than 649 million, a number that doubles all the people of the United States. Internet usage has experienced a rise due to the development and appreciation of the mobile internet. Approximately 557 million of the Chinese population access internet using their tablets and smartphones. Even though the growth has been great over years, it is starting to be slow with the statistical report indicating that the number of internet users was 31 million in 2014 while in 2013, it was 54 million. However, the number of people who use mobile gadgets to access the Internet has grown significantly with approximately 57 million users joining last year. The paradox is that despite the tremendous growth rate of internet connectivity, the majority of the Chinese population still cannot access the internet. It is approximated that 52.1% of the Chinese population do not have internet access. Rural dwellers form the majority of the population that cannot access the internet in China. Data compiled by the United Nations and World Bank show that China has the largest number of internet users followed by the United States that has 280 million, then India with 234 million, and Japan closing the top four with 109 million. Figure 1 below compares the internet usage among some of the leading countries in the world. Source: McKirdy (2015) Figure 1: Comparison of Internet Usage in the World The censorship of the internet in China, commonly known as the Great Fire Wall, has seen China developing its internet characteristics (Esarey & Xiao 2011). The censorship saw the rise of Chinese internet innovations in the country. In explanation, China does not use the platforms that are common in the western part of the world such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Instead, they have developed their platforms which include Weibo, Kaixin, Renren, and QZone. They also have WeChat, which is an instant messaging platform that acts as a substitute to Snapchat and Whatsapp while Tuodo and Youko play the same roles as Youtube. The country also enjoys the fastest growing electronic commerce. 2.0 Chinese Internet Environments The addresses in China by the end of 2014 were IPv4 and IPv6. The number of the addresses was 332 million and 18797 blocks respectively (China Internet Network Information Center 2015). The total number of domain names in the country is 20.6 million. The names of the ‘CN' domains have been increasing annually in China at the rate of approximately 2.4% thus covering 53.8% of the domains in China. China has about 3.35 million websites. The growth rate of the websites has been 4.6 percent per annum. The International Internet gateway bandwidth was approximated to be 4,118,663 megabytes per second in 2014 and was experiencing a growth rate of 20.9 percent per annum. 2.1 Internet Access Environment The utilization of internet devices such as laptops and desktops in China has been stable as per the 2014 statistics. However, there has been an increase in the use of mobile internet devices to access the internet over years. For instance, China has witnessed the introduction of network television that has caused a paradigm shift in the entertainment field. The ratio to which laptops and tablets are used to access the internet have maintained in the country considering the year 2013 and 2014. The use of laptops vis-à-vis tablets is approximated to be 43.2% and 70.8% (China Internet Network Information Center 2015). The use of mobile phones for internet access was at 4.8 percent more in 2014 compared to the 2013 statistics. Ease and convenience have seen tablet PC gain more popularity among the Chinese with the more educated venturing into its use more than the less educated. The China population has often used it for entertainment purposes. China has also experienced development on the broadband and network technologies thus has allowed for the utilization of the network television which is smart, controllable, and shareable. The utilization ratio of the network television has been growing over years. In China, the internet can be accessed in different places.For instance, it can be accessed at home, the office, or the Internet bar. A large population of China access internet at school. Other people in China also access the Internet in the public places that have Wi-Fi such as the restaurants, cafes, and airports either for fun or to conduct their businesses (China Internet Network Information Center 2015). Some of the population in the urban areas of China can access the internet at their home courtesy of Wi-Fi. The percentage of urban netizens using Wi-Fi is approximately 81.1 at home through the personal computers (China Internet Network Information Center 2015). Home Wi-Fi has also encouraged the older family members in China to use the Internet thus boosting the level of internet utilization in the urban settings. 2.2 Internet Security Environment China has an alarming internet security. Almost 46.3 percent of the China population using the internet has experienced security concerns in the year 2014. Furthermore, Trojan and viral attacks on the personal computers and mobile phones have been of great concern among the China population. Internet accounts are also hacked and stolen as same as the passwords with the online shopping experiencing frauds that are approximated to be at the rate of 12.6 percent (China Internet Network Information Center 2015). The security concerns can only be averted through the integration of the netizens, enterprises, and government's efforts. Usage of the internet in China needs precaution. The internet users, therefore, needs awareness creation, skills on self-protection, and capacity building relating to the insecurity concerns with the aim of maintaining a safe and secure environment. The number of China's netizens who consider the internet environment to be safe is lower compared to those who consider it unsafe. However, the difference is insignificant with the former making 48.6 percent of the total netizens in China while the latter adds up to approximately 49 percent. Some of the internet security related threats have been information leakage, consumption-related frauds, and passwords and accounts being stolen (Wei 2011). The technological advancement has seen network concerns influencing the public security of a country. 2.3 Government Regulations The China government has often restricted or blocked the use of Internet platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter due to political reasons. For instance, the call for bringing dictatorship to an end has been banned in China through the "Great Firewall" which is close to impossible to penetrate (Taneja & Wu 2014). In reaction, several of the China citizens using the internet have opted for virtual private networks as a way of fighting the censorship laws. However, the government has reacted to the attempts through ensuring that such virtual private networks are shut down. Such laws have seen companies like Apple without an option but tailor-making their products to the needs of the China population. As a result, the regulations are not good for business. China's internet censorship is considered to be extreme as there are a wide variety of administrative regulations and laws in place. The regulations have forced the organizations, companies, and the public internet service providers to integrate them. The Internet control in China is rated as the most advanced and extensive compared to other countries. The government authorities have been accused of monitoring of the public activities and blocking of websites thus the name "The Great Firewall of China." (Taneja & Wu 2014) Due to the laws and policies, China has the most significant number of cyber-dissidents and imprisoned journalists in the world making it the worst place for the netizens. Offenses to which the China population is jailed for include called to end corruption, calls for reform, online petitions, and communication with international groups. The regulations were set after a series of ethnic riots, anti-corruption protests, and anti-pollution protests. Most of the protests were formed through text messages, chat rooms, and other messaging services including emails (Esarey & Xiao 2011). Even though the introduction of the laws and regulations has negatively impacted on the international businesses in China, the local businesses such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu have gained momentum. In explanation, the laws and regulations have blocked the international companies that relied on the internet. For example, Wikipedia sites were blocked in China in 2015 after they integrated the HTTPS systems that were difficult to censor just to unblock after some days. 3.0 Impacts of Social Media on Chinese People More than a half of the China populations in 2015 used social media which was a 17 percent increase in the number in 2014 (Guo 2016). However, the number of people who feel positive about social media has experienced a 4 percent fall to 61 percent. Almost 15 percent of the China population feel that social media has negatively impacted their lives which are a 2 percent increase from the percentage of 2014. 24 percent of the population considers social media to be of no impact in their lives. The increase in the usage of social media is experienced among all the age groups including the elderly. The people of China often use the social media despite the stagnation in the number of people using the most dominant platforms in the country such as WeChat and Weibo. The expansion of the social media in China has seen an impact on the credibility of its platforms. The younger population no longer has great trusts on the traditional media compared to the total population. For example, the China population that was born in the 1990s does not trust the conventional media such as radio, newspapers, and television but social media platforms (Guo 2016). The social media platforms in China such as internet and WeChat have become more common among the China population. The population trust the platforms more compared to the conventional media (Hooghe 2015). China has grown to be the third nation that is most active on the social media platforms with the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Brazil closing the top five. Women are more active on social media compared to men parts. Even though the United States population visits the social media sites more often compared to the China one, the latter stays longer on the platforms than the former. Women love sharing information and other things that they possess like clothing, images, and data among others. Social media, therefore, offers a suitable platform through which women could fulfill their need. The concept explains why women are more in the social media in China and even in the United States (Guo 2016). Social media is, therefore, suitable for selling off brands that are feminine. As a result, it is appropriate to advertise the materials used by women on the social media. Even though those used by their male counterparts can also be promoted in the market, it is projected that the impact will not be as high as compared to the ones that target the female population (Hooghe 2015). The China population has particular content that they consume in the social media. The community enjoys consuming the emotional content of the media to which they call the "chicken soup." (Guo 2016) As a result, the number of accounts that are emotion-themed has been growing over years. The number of the page-viewer of these accounts has also increased steadily over years. The entertainment content is still the most preferred among the China population. The second best is the health and lifestyle contents even though it the number of clicks have not increased over years. Information and news accounts have gained popularity over years as fashion and beauty experiencing a fall. Topics that are most preferred in China are those designed in multiple media format. Such arrangements entail the integration of music, pictures, or video with the content to be advertised. In WeChat, such content has a higher likeliness to go viral. Brands, therefore, need to have a distinctive work or style to which they employ a specialized opinion leader to run their social media accounts and leverage the benefits to the business. Social media in China has also seen the locals considering discussing issues relating to their celebrities. For example, Weibo has grown to be a popular platform in China in which celebrities are presented. A study at Weibo shows that 50 of the celebrities usually cause approximately 110 million buzzes each year (Guo 2016). The boys bands are standard on the platform with the TFBoys being among the leading band. Even though Zheng Shuang, Wallace Huo, and Jay Chuo do not have Weibo accounts, they make the top 50 most discussed celebrities in China. On average, a celebrity that falls among the top 50 on Weibo and has an account, they have 23.58 million followers with each of the tweets generating approximately 43,395 comments and retweets (Guo 2016). The driving force of the social media has seen that the handsome, young, and multi-talented celebrities of the 1990s and 2000 become more popular with a great fan power courtesy of Weibo. In addition, the television dramas band films that are adapted from the famous novel found online have been received well among the China population (Hooghe 2015). 4.0 China Business Environments Social media have been having a great impact on the China's business environment. Several companies use social media for profit while other are based on the internet principles as a source of income. Even though China does not have YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, they have specifically designed platforms for the country. It is important for any of the business located in China to understand the importance of social media if it has to be competitive enough. Social media has grown and becomes a significant phenomenon in China's economy compared to other countries in the world. It has developed to be the suitable way of engaging the country’s population. 4.1The Social Media Scene in China China is not only the biggest internet user in the world but also a country whose citizens are most active in the social media. More than 300 million in China use social media in varied online communities including social network sites, blogs, and micro-blogs (Chiu, Ip, & Silverman, 2012). The number is approximately equivalent to the number of the population of United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France combined. The online users in China spend 40 percent of their time on the internet on social media platforms. The figure has been rising steadily thus showing a steadfast increase in the number of social media users. The appetite for social media has seen several businesses develop, some more complicated than the ones in the West. For instance, the China people embedded a multi-media content on the social media platform several months before Twitter could replicate. Social media started gaining its popularity in China in 1994 in which online communities and forums were developed. Later in 1999, it migrated to instant messaging. Sites of user review such as Dianping later emerged in 2003 while blogging gained popularity in 2004. A year later, social networking sites such as Renren came into existence. Later on, Weibo was launched in 2009 that saw the rise of multimedia micro-blogging. In 2010, Jiepang came into the surface and imitated the services of foursquares. 4.2 Social Commerce Consumers in China have grown to adapt rapidly to the upcoming mobile technologies. They have adjusted, and now most of them enjoy mobile shopping experiences. Social media use in business is growing fast that publishing its statistics is impossible. Youku Tudou business development manager, Jim Lerch, was quoted at the Razorfish Summit saying that his leading internet television platform has stopped publishing the trends of consumer surveys because of their high fluctuation rates (Chiu, Ip, & Silverman, 2012). The e-commerce market in China is so large and vibrant. For example, in August 2011, 388 cars were sold on flash sale in three minutes through WeChat, something that has never happened even in the United States. Most customers in China are more likely to buy things online compared to over the counter. Any international company thinking of venturing into China should do a thing of developing an online strategy if it has to succeed. Furthermore, the Chinese do not mind talking about their transactions on the social media. A significant portion of the online shoppers in China do share their experiences on WeChat and other additional apps. Social media has, therefore, a great impact on the China's social commerce. In China, social commerce is not a future strategy but the present. 4.3 China’s Electronic Commerce Alibaba, an electronic commerce group, has completely changed China. It is the China’s largest Internet retailing company. It runs platforms such as Consumer-to-Consumer platform which is abbreviated as C-to-C, Taobao, Tmall, Business-to-Consumer which is abbreviated as B2C platform, the sister, Online payment service, the Alipay, and Sina (Zhang & Huang 2012). Platforms for micro-blogging such as Weibo has also grown popularity as they work together with the QQ-International which is the most popular network marketing tool when it comes to instant messaging. Efforts have been put in place to ensure that Chine’s e-commerce platforms access international market for success and expansion of the exports. The venture has called for the introduction of multilingual versions of the software. Taobao, for instance, has already ventured into the field and is working to cover the Southeast Asian region (Zhang & Huang 2012). However, Alibaba Group has focused on Chinese market since the rest of the world might find it difficult to understand the ‘Han calligraphy' art. Most of these platforms do target India due to its huge growth opportunities that make it inevitable. Alibaba also considers Western markets and Brazil. China does not use eBay but Taobao that acts as an online market to which sales and auctions of small enterprises and cars are conducted. Taobao has more than 150 million users on its C2C platform which is the largest in Asia (Zhang & Huang 2012). It is ranked number three in China’s web ranking due to its interesting information while has a share market of approximately 70%. However, it was not meant to be a platform for sales. Tmall was introduced in the market in 2008 that saw it grow to become the largest Chinese platform of its kind. It has a market share of approximately 50%. It also has more than 70,000 brands of both western and Chinese manufacturers including Samsung, Dell, Levi's, Nike, Philips, L'Oreal, and Adidas (Zhang & Huang 2012). Tmall is an equivalent of America's Amazon only that it focuses only on the large enterprises. As a result, it focuses on the quality of product and novelty. Contrary to Taobao, no copies or fakes are sold at Tmall. The platform has, therefore, grown to be more popular among the consumers in China making it be ranked number nine in the country's web ranking. Alibaba group has been working on expanding the Tmall in China to access the smallest of towns and villages that have enormous demand compared to those in large cities. By 2012, Taobao and Tmall have seen the gross sales rise to about 120 billion euros. The rise, however, has been continuous. Weibo is the Chinese version of Twitter in China. It is the largest micro-blogging service with about 47 million users and allows an entry of 140 characters only just as Twitter (Zhang & Huang 2012). Compared to other China media, Weibo is a better platform for free expression. Most of the users are the well-established and career-oriented population that fall into the middle class. Through the strategic maneuver, Alibaba group has managed to reach its potential consumers in the electronic commerce market. QQ International is a free instant messaging platform in China. It has grown to be the most popular program for chatting in Asia. QQ International covers the geography of about 80 countries with approximately a billion registered users (Zhang & Huang 2012). The program allows for simultaneous translation of Chinese into Korean, Spanish, French, German, and English thus able to break the language barrier challenges. The app also includes the standard services such as voice messages and short messages. It also has multimedia streaming, data transfers, and video calls. The platform also supports chat room and direct communication. Alipay is online payment system widely used in China. It has more than 600 million users who are registered. Just like Paypal, it has fiduciary function and enables the transfer of the money from the buyer to the seller upon the arrival of the goods (Zhang & Huang 2012). The transaction is conducted in a secure way that ensures that the needs of the suppliers and buyers are met appropriately. As a result, the Chinese have grown much trust to the Alipay system and frequently use it to pay for services. The process is also not complicated and uses the national currency. Alipay is integrated into approximately 65 credit card companies and financial institutions. For instance, MasterCard and Visa can be used to facilitate payment abroad or in China. The Chinese currency can be converted directly into almost twelve major world currencies. In Germany, Alipay is represented by Mark Chen that allows for cross-border payments in a safe and easy way. 5.0 Conclusion The population of China is directly proportional to the rate of internet usage thus making China the fastest. However, the usage has been more of the urban setting compared to the rural ones. The internet access environment in China is a bit unique compared to those of other countries. For instance, China has government regulations that offer surveillance to the Internet usage in the country including social media sights. The practice infringes the rights to privacy of individual and businesses. The internet is not also that secure as there have been several hacking occasions among other malpractices. However, the internet in China has an ample access, and a variety of people uses it. Social media has seen the China population become more innovative with females having more access to it compared to their male counterparts. Lastly, the Chinese business environment is not an enabling one since it does not promote the principles of fairness, equity, and transparency. Social media has had a great impact on the China’s business environment. The number of people using social media has increased steadily over years in the country. The increase is only in the number of social media users but also the platforms that range from social network sites, blogs, and micro-blogs. As a result, some of the companies have focused on reaping the benefits that come with a population with social media and internet appetite. For instance, Alibaba has grown steadily over years. The Taobao platform, which is the China's eBay, has also experienced a significant progress. Tmall was introduced in the market in 2008 that saw it grow to become the largest Chinese platform of its kind. It has a market share of approximately 50%. Weibo is the Chinese version of Twitter in China. It is the largest micro-blogging service with about 47 million users and allows an entry of 140 characters only just as Twitter. QQ International is a free instant messaging platform in China. It has grown to be the most popular program for chatting in Asia. Alipay is online payment system widely used in China. It has more than 600 million users who are registered. Just as Paypal, it has fiduciary function and enables the transfer of the money from the buyer to the seller upon the arrival of the goods. Reference List China Internet Network Information Center 2015, Statistical report on internet development in China, China Internet Network Information Center, viewed 19 April 2016, < http://www1.cnnic.cn/IDR/ReportDownloads/201507/P020150720486421654597.pdf > Esarey, A & Xiao, Q, 2011, ‘Digital communication and political change in China’, International Journal of Communication, vol. 5, pp.298-319. 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