Over 200 million Chinese citizens are now using the Internet. Which puts them in third place on the global list, after the US with 215 million internet users, and the European Union with 273 million netizens. Although 200 million sounds impressive, internet usage as percentage of China’s population of 1.3 billion people is still low. In 2006 “only” 137 million people used the Internet in China. Music is the most popular way to spend time online according to a poll. China will become the second biggest internet country in a few months, and it will not take long to overtake the European Union and end up on top of the list. The Chinese desire to express themselves using the web has caused problems for the central government, which limits what data is available to its population. Major Western Internet companies have been under fire for cooperating with the Chinese government to restrict freedom of expression and access to information. Which is not surprising as these companies want to keep the government happy, as the Chinese market is too interesting (financially) to ignore.
For the first time the report provided a detailed break down of the classes of Internet users in mainland China. Amongst the Internet population in 2007, the rising trend in Internet users from various social levels is very apparent. Specifically the growth in users aged under 18 and over 30 is bigger than any other age group. Internet users educated at junior high school level and under are also increasing faster than other social groups; more and more low-income earners are starting to get in touch with the Internet.
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