Chinese netizens spending more time online as short video app usage surges 8.3 per cent in a year

The total number of Chinese netizens reached 1.05 billion by the end of the first half, with 99.6 per cent using a mobile phone, according to the CNNIC survey

Netizens spent an average of 29.5 hours online every week in the first six months of the year, nearly three hours more than last year, the report showed

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Passengers use their smartphones at the Beijing Railway Station, Jan. 30, 2016. By mid 2022, 99.6 per cent of Chinese netizens used a mobile phone. Photo: AP

Published: 8:00pm, 31 Aug 2022Updated: 8:18pm, 31 Aug 2022

The number of short video users in China reached 962 million by the end of June, accounting for 91.5 per cent of all netizens in the country, according to the latest data from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

The user base for short videos saw “the most significant growth” among internet applications, with 28 million new users added over the past six months, 3 per cent greater than in December, but up 8.3 per cent in the past year, CNNIC said on Wednesday.

The total number of Chinese netizens reached 1.05 billion by the end of the first half, with 99.6 per cent using a mobile phone, according to the survey, which CNNIC has conducted twice a year since 1997.

“Despite the complex, severe environment and many risks and challenges, we still see growth in certain online applications,” said CNNIC deputy director Zhang Xiao.

Beijing has imposed harsher regulations governing internet platforms over the past couple of years. New rules on privacy, data management and algorithmic recommendations have crimped popular revenue models. The rules on algorithms, which took effect in March, were aimed at restricting how they were used by apps to recommend what users would like to read, watch, play and buy online.

Short video apps like Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and its rival Kuaishou, have both applied algorithms to keep users addicted. Nevertheless, they are still popular. Douyin has more than 600 million daily active users (DAU) while Kuaishou’s DAUs surpassed 347 million in the second quarter.

Zhang said China’s “internet infrastructure continues to advance”, especially in 5G coverage, which has “expanded to every county”. As of June, there were more than 1.85 million 5G base stations in the country, providing faster network connections for mobile users.