Not all that much in the report issued last month by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) if you fine-toothed the year-end report for 2007. That’s not surprising given that all the data were drawn from the research for that report. But it does drill down a bit into the under-25 set’s behavior. Reading through it I highlighted a few items that are worth pondering, for sure:

  • Internet Cafe use: Though this isn’t news to people who’ve spent time in China, and especially in lower-tier cities, the CNNIC report puts some numbers to the importance of Internet Cafes as an Internet access point for younger Chinese people. 33.5% of primary and middle school Internet users report accessing the Web from i-cafes, and 47.8% of Chinese netizens under-25 do so. Internet cafes are the primary point of access for 59.5% of rural Netizens, compared with 43.5% o urban users. (The higher proportion of urban to rural Netizens puts the overall average much closer to the urban average).
  • Time spent online: While the average Chinese netizen spends 16.2 hours per week online, non-students in the under-25 set are far above this, with an average of 20.8 hours per week. College students average 14.8 hours per week, while primary through high school students average 6.4 hours a week.
  • Importance of Online Games: CNNIC reports that 73.7% of the Chinese youth Internet users under 18 play online games, and primary through middle school students are playing games for an average of 3.3 hours a week. Just among middle school students, 5.5% are spending more than 10 hours a week on online games.
  • Prevalence of Internet Addiction: Again, no surprises here: The report claims that almost 27.1% of youth Netizens have “an inclination toward Internet addiction.” Non-students in the under-25 age group have higher rates of addictive propensity, with about 36.5% exhibiting “withdrawal symptoms” within days or even mere hours of their last Internet fix — agitation, an irrepressible urge to get online, fear that they’re missing something. Somewhat surprisingly, youth Net junkies represent a smaller proportion of their age group than junkies in the overall population, where 40% are addicted or something close. (38.3% respond agree that “If I don’t go online for 1 day, I feel like I’ve missed something.”) Sign me up for treatment, then, because I can barely go the 6 or 7 hours of sleep I usually allow myself.
  • Mobile Internet Access Higher Among Youth: 31% of youth Netizens report having used mobile phones to access the Internet in the six months prior to the survey, significantly above the 24% reported nationally. College students are the heaviest mobile Internet users, with 40.2% having accessed the Internet during that period.
  • Youth are Heaviest IM Users: No duh, but penetration is at 91.3% for the under-25 set — almost 10 percentage points higher than the national average of 81.4%. The differential in usage rates of online games (9.5% higher) and online movies (6% higher) are also significant but not surprising.
  • BBS Use Much Higher: Finally, no one who watches the Chinese Internet will be shocked to learn that youth are the heavies users of BBS. CNNIC reports that over 60% of college students report having posted messages on BBSs — a whopping 26.6 percentage points above the same figure for overall Chinese Internet users.