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China technology
Tech

Chinese mobile users now spend over 6 hours every day online – that’s almost 2 full days a week

  • As China hits saturation in the growth of its mobile internet population, the time users are spending on their devices continues to climb
  • Online mobile engagement is driven by smart devices, digitisation in the offline retail industry and live streaming, according to research firm QuestMobile

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Commuters use their mobile phones as they ride on a subway in Beijing. Photo: AFP
Jane Zhang

Chinese mobile users may be spending almost twice as much time as the average adult in the US online on their devices, research suggests.

From the beginning of 2019 to the end of last November, each user spent an average of 6.2 hours of day – or 1.8 full days a week – online on mobile devices, 11.3 per cent more than the same period last year, according to a report published by research firm QuestMobile on Thursday. The average number of apps they used per month also increased from 21.3 in 2018 to 23.6 in 2019, according to the report.

A separate report by research firm eMarketer in May last year estimated that the average US adult would spend three hours and 43 minutes on mobile devices a day in 2019.

China’s technological growth in the past decade has been largely mobile-driven, giving it a head start in the booming global app industry and changing the way people in the country live, work and play. The mobile internet population grew five-fold within 10 years, reaching more than 847 million by June 2019, according to government agency China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

That growth seems to be reaching a saturation point, according to the QuestMobile report: mobile internet user growth fell below 1 per cent for the first time in 2019, registering an anaemic 0.7 per cent increase year-on-year.

Online mobile engagement in the country shows no sign of slowing, however. This is mainly driven by the proliferation of smart devices, the digitisation of the offline retail industry as well as the popularity of live streaming and its integration with social, shopping, music and video platforms, the report said.

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