People buy Apple products at the new Apple flagship store on opening day after an outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Sanlitun, Beijing, China on July 17, 2020.
Thomas Peter | Reuters
BEIJING – New data shows the extent to which the Chinese went online after the coronavirus pandemic and adopted new habits, such as buying through live video streams.
At the end of 2020, China had 989 million internet users, according to data released on Wednesday by the government agency China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).
This represents an increase of 85.4 million compared to March, just after the worst coronavirus outbreak in China, which has forced hundreds of millions of Chinese to spend more time indoors.
To get an idea of the scale of the Chinese population of nearly 1 billion Internet users, its leadership over India’s 639 million Internet users is 350 million, which is greater than the entire population of the United States.
The government report also showed how, after the worst outbreak in China ended in April, some online trends continued, while others did not.
The report reports that between March and the end of the year, an additional 72.15 million people made online purchases, predominantly on cell phones, reaching 782 million.
More people also had more money to spend – and were increasingly working from home.
The report states that the proportion of internet users with a monthly income of at least 5,001 yuan ($ 774) increased to 29.3% in December, from 27.6% in March.
The number of people working remotely increased from 147 million in June to 346 million in December – about a third of the country’s internet users.
More people watch short videos than buy online
As the growth of online buyers was significant, video viewing increased even further – by 76.33 million in nine months – to 927 million in December.
This means that almost 94% of all Chinese internet users watched videos online, far more than the 79% who bought online.
Only short video users rose by 100 million in March to 873 million at the end of the year.
Live e-commerce users have also increased, from 123 million in March to 388 million in December. About two-thirds of those users made a purchase while watching a live broadcast, the report said.
Drop in online health users
Although learning and obtaining online health consultations showed significant growth during the coronavirus outbreak, use declined in December.
Online education users reached 342 million, 81.25 million below the total of 423 million in March.
Users of online health services fell to 215 million, from 276 million that the agency had reported in June. March figures were not available.
Wednesday’s report noted that the penetration of online health care in less developed parts of China increased from June to around a fifth in December.