China internet services struggle to recover from Covid-19 as country’s internet users reach 940 million
- The Covid-19 pandemic pushed more rural residents online, helping close the gap with urban areas
- Online entertainment such as live-streaming and short video services continue to grow, while ride-hailing and food delivery enterprises struggle
The Covid-19 pandemic encouraged millions more people in China to work, shop and seek entertainment online this year. That has resulted in increased use of live-streaming and short video-sharing services, but other segments are still struggling to recover, according to a biannual government report on internet usage.
More than half of China’s rural residents are now online for the first time ever, the report said. Internet users now make up 52.3 per cent of the rural population as of June, up from 39.8 per cent a year earlier.
The pandemic has been a big reason for that increase, as lockdowns and quarantines forced more people to work remotely and prompted more children to join online education platforms.
With more children online, remote learning became one of the bright spots for internet services during the pandemic. This market segment, however, is already showing signs of slowing down. There were 380 million online education users in June, down 10 per cent from March. That is still significantly more than the 232 million remote learners China had last year.
