People buy Apple products in the new flagship Apple store on its opening day after an outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sanlitun, Beijing, China, July 17, 2020.
Thomas Peter | Reuters
BEIJING – New data shows the extent to which the Chinese went online following the coronavirus pandemic and adopted new habits, such as shopping through live video streams.
By the end of 2020, China had 989 million Internet users, according to figures released Wednesday by the government’s China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).
It has risen by 85.4 million since March, right after China’s worst coronavirus epidemic, which has forced hundreds of millions of Chinese to spend more time indoors.
For a sense of the size of China’s nearly 1 billion Internet population, its advantage over India’s 639 million Internet users is 350 million, which is greater than the entire US population.
The government report also showed how, after China’s worst epidemic ended in April, some online trends stalled, while others did not.
The report said that between March and the end of the year, 72.15 million people still bought online, mostly on mobile phones, reaching 782 million.
More people also had more money to spend – and they were working more and more from home.
The report notes that the proportion of Internet users with a monthly income of at least 5,001 yuan ($ 774) rose to 29.3% in December, up from 27.6% in March.
The number of people working remotely has risen by 147 million since June to 346 million since December – about a third of the country’s internet users.
More people watch short videos than shop online
As the growth was significant for online shoppers, watching videos increased even more – 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, much more than 79% who bought online.
Only short video users rose 100 million from March to 873 million at the end of the year.
Livestreaming e-commerce users also rose 123 million from March to 388 million in December. About two-thirds of these users made a purchase while watching a live stream, the report said.
Online health care users give up
While learning and obtaining online health consultations saw a significant increase during the coronavirus outbreak, use declined by December.
Online education users stood at 342 million, down 81.25 million from a total of 423 million in March.
Online healthcare users fell to 215 million, down from the agency’s 276 million reported for June. March figures were not available.
Wednesday’s report noted that the penetration of online health care in less developed parts of China has risen from June to about a fifth in December.