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China Digital Marketing Statistics 2020

Keep up to date with the latest digital marketing statistics.

Internet Statistics

  • 56.7% or 802 million of Chinese are now internet users

  • Singaporeans of all age groups use the Internet, with most users in the 25 - 34 age range at 31%.

Total population 1,415,045,928

Total internet users 802 million

Facebook user 1.8 million

(InternetWorldStats, 2018)

  • Projected age distribution of internet users in China from 2014 to 2018:

​0 - 11: 1.6%
12 - 17: 11%

18 - 24: 15.8%

25 - 34: 27.5%

35 - 44: 23.2%

​45 - 54: 14.9%

55 - 64: 4.4%

65+ : 1.6%
(Statista, 2018)

  • Devices used to access the Internet by users in China by January 2017

Mobile Phone: 96%

Smart Phone: 79%

​Laptop: 61%
Tablet: 17%

Television: 97%

Device for Streaming Internet (TV): 8%

Wearable Tech Device: 2%

(Hootsuite x We are Social, 2017)

  • In 2017, the average daily time spent using the internet in China via PC/Tablet reached 6 hours 21 minutes and access via Mobile Phone is 3 hours 4 minutes. (Hootsuite x We are Social, 2017)

  • As per weekly average online duration of the internet users, in December 2016, it showed the average of 26.4 hours.
    (CNNIC, 2017)

  • The average internet speed via fixed connection in China by January 2017 is at 5,7 Mbps via PC/Laptop, meanwhile for Mobile connection is at 8,9Mbps. (Hootsuite x We are social, 2017)
  • Share of Average Time Spend per Day with Internet by Adults in China by Device in 2017

Smartphone: 66,0%

Computers: 25.3%

​Other: 8.7%
(eMarketer, 2017)

  • ​Up to December 2016, China had 731 million internet users, up 42.99 million over the previous year.

  • The Internet penetration rate was 53.2%, showed a growth of 2.9% points compared to the previous year.

  • As of December 2016, the number of mobile Internet users in China reached 695 million, increased by 75.5 million from the end of 2015. (We Are Social, 2015)

  • The number of internet users in China had hit 731 millions at the end of December 2016.

  • The number includes 201 million rural internet users, made with 27.4% of users of the national total, increasing 2.7% from the end of 2015.

  • The internet penetration in urban area was 69.1% as of December 2016.

  • Comparing to the end of 2015, the growing use of internet showed of those under 10 and of those above 40, indicating that the internet is continuing to penetrate into these two groups.
    (CNNIC, 2017)

  • Based on the reports, in 2016, the Chinese users were likely using their access for online meal ordering and online medical services, the two services showed growth up to 83.7% and 28.0%

  • In terms of mobile phone applications, users of mobile meal ordering and mobile education increased respectively by 86.2% and 84.8%

  • As of 2016, it was reported that 98.90 million of Chinese netizens purchased online financial products, growing more 8.63 million over the previous years. (CNNIC, 2017)

  • By the end of 2016, China has 6.640 million Mbps of International Internet Gateway Bandwidth, increased 23.1% annually.
    (CNNIC, 2017)

  • By December 2016, there have been up to 467 million of online shopping users taking up 63.8% of the total netizen.

  • Up to 475 million of internet users are part of online payment users. (CNNIC, 2017)
  • Devices used to access the internet by users in China by March 2020

Mobile Phone: 99.3%

Desktop PC: 42.7%

Laptop: 35.1%

Tablet: ​29%

​TV: ​32%
(​CNNIC, 2020)​

  • People in China are spending an unprecedented amount of time online. In 2017, the average weekly time spent reached 27 hours, up about 36 minutes from a year ago—the fastest that measure has grown in three years. (eMarketer, 2018)

  • 38.9 percent of users have a speed above 100Mbps

  • Additional data on China's Internet speed is supplied by US cloud service Akamai, which said in Q1 2017 the number is 7.6Mbps, an OK speed for most of the daily actions online.

  • The largest number CGTN found is from speedtest.net, a service provided by US company Ookla, who recorded China's average broadband speed in June at 78.24Mbps, ranking 18th in the world.
    (CGTN, 2018)

  • Share of Average Time Spent per Day with Internet by Adults in China, by Device:

Smartphone: 70.5%

Computers: 17.7%

​Other: 8.7%
(eMarketer, 2018)​

  • The report said that 788 million Chinese used mobile phones to surf the internet in the first half of 2018, making up 98.3 percent of the total internet users.
  • Cumulative mobile internet traffic reached 26.6 billion GB, an increase of 199.6 percent.
  • In the second quarter, the average download speed for 4G users was 20.22 Mb/s, up 50.2 percent year-on-year, according to the report.

  • China's international internet gateway bandwidth also expanded to 8,826,302 Mbps, up 20.6 percent from the end of 2017.
    (CNNIC, 2018)

  • The number of internet users in China hit 802 million at the end of June, up 3.8 percent from six months ago, according to a report on the country's internet development released Monday.

  • The increase brought the country's internet availability rate to 57.7 percent, with 26.3 percent of internet users living in rural areas

  • It also highlighted the growing use of the internet among those aged from 30 to 49, as 39.9 percent of them going online in the first half of the year. (CNNIC, 2018)

  • According to the report, The percentage of Chinese internet users using online financial services rose from 16.7 percent to 21 percent in the first half of 2018, despite tightened supervision on the industry.

  • The number of online financial service users in June increased by 39.74 million, up 30.9 percent from the end of 2017.

  • At the same time, online shopping and online payment users accounted for 71 percent of China's total online users.

  • Online takeout service users also continued to increase. As of June 2018, 43.6 percent of Chinese internet users had used mobile phones to order takeout food. (ChinaFocus, 2018)

  • China is the largest broadband market in the world by a significant margin, with 361.5 million subscribers as of March 2018, compared to the 111.4 million in the world’s second largest market, the U.S.

  • In China, there were almost 330 million fibre-based subscribers at the end of 2017 compared to just 11 million for DSL and 7 million for cable broadband. (Telegeography, 2018)

  • 71% of consumers are already using online-to-offline services such as click-and-collect ordering and online restaurant bookings. Of those, 97% say they will use the same or more O2O services in the coming six months. (TradeGecko, 2018)

  • Understanding 3 key elements of Chinese consumer behavior in the digital marketing world (AgencyChina, 2018)
  • Rigorous research before purchasing
  • Click on well-targeted advertising
  • e-retail via mobile
  • Online mobility services in particular are making strides in China with 31 percent of people using bike sharing apps, 37 percent reserving either bus or train seats online and 43 percent using taxi-booking apps. (CNNIC, 2018)

  • Online shoppers numbered 569 million. The value of online retail sales reached 4.08 trillion yuan (about 594 billion U.S. dollars) during the first half of 2018, a year-on-year increase of 30.1 percent. (ChinaFocus, 2018)

  • At 2017's end, rural internet users made up 27.0% of all of internet users in China, the CNNIC found. However, 42.7% of the country's population resides in the countryside (eMarketer, 2018)

  • Seventy-two percent of consumers want O2O services to offer a way to return products purchased online to a physical store, while 56% want to order goods online and pick them up in-store. They are also looking for offerings in three primary O2O categories: entertainment (61%), healthcare (47%), and housing or care services (42%). (TradeGecko.com,2018)

  • Chinese Government to Tighten Internet Censorship Further in 2018. (The Globe Post, 2018)

Social Media Marketing

  • ​China has 786.9 million of active social media users.
    (We Are Social, 2017)

  • 56% of total internet users in China accessed the web on their mobile devices.

  • Other access methods are using Laptop (42%) and Tablet Devices (2%). (Hootsuite x We are Social, 2017)

  • As many as 786.9 million Chinese internet users are accessing social media through their mobile devices. (We Are Social, 2017)

  • In 2017, Weibo reported that users penetration showed increased in certain age group user:

15 - 19: 69.4% up 3.7%
20 - 29: 77.3% up 1.9%
30 - 39: 61.4% up 6.3%
40 - 49: 63.8% up 12.1%

50 - 59: 34.2% up 28.3%
60+ : 13.4% up 38.2%
(Kantar, 2017)

  • The popular Social Media in China is WeChat, taking up 62% of Chinese Social Media users, followed by Youku with 48%, Qzone 47%, Sina Weibo 45%, Tudou 34%, Tencent Weibo 31% and Renren 21% (We are social, 2017)

  • In 2017, the average daily time spent using the internet in China via PC/Tablet reached 6 hours 21 minutes and access via Mobile Phone is 3 hours 4 minutes. (Hootsuite x We are Social, 2017)

  • As per weekly average online duration of the internet users, in December 2016, it showed the average of 26.4 hours.
    (CNNIC, 2017)

  • Market Share of China’s Social Media in Q2 - 2017:

Tencent : 56.8%
Weibo: 29.5%
MOMO: 2.0%
BabyTree: 1.3%
Tianya: 0.1%

Baidu Tieba: 0.2%
Mama.cn: 0.6%

Other: 9.3%
(China Internet Watch, 2017)

  • WeChat as the most popular Messaging Application in China showed their growth from Q1 - Q4 in 2017 based on the monthly active users, in Q1 the number shows 938 million active users, and Q4 showed 989 million active users. (Messenger People, 2017)

  • Top 5 social media and instant messaging app 2015 in China:

WeChat: Mobile chatting app with over 700 million monthly active users.
Tencent QQ: Platform for chatting, gaming and shopping with 576 million monthly active users.
Momo: Dating App turned social networks. Over 69 million monthly active users.
Wangxin: E-commerce communication application.
Youni: A mobile commerce and messaging application.
(SCMP, 2015)

  • China has a whopping 911 million active social media users, compared with the U.S. figure of 207 million. (LuxionMedia, 2019)
  • 83% of the Singapore population are on social media (wearesocial x Hootsuite Global Digital Report 2018)

  • ​752.7 million internet users in China accessed the web on their mobile devices, representing 97.5% of all internet users in the country. That compares with 95.1% a year prior.

  • Other access methods trailed far behind barely half (53.0%) of all internet users went online via desktop. For laptops, the level was 35.8%. And for tablets, it was 27.1%. (eMarketer, 2018)

  • Social media use has increased by 21 per cent, reaching 2.8 billion users. Mobile social media use has increased by 30 per cent year-over-year to surpass 2.5 billion users globally, with 91 percent of social media users accessing social from mobile. (Digital in 2017)
    ​
  • 57% of all social media users are women, and men only account for 43%. (BrandonGaille, 2017)
    ​
  • The key thing every company must know in order to do business in China is that Western social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and so on are banned in China. In fact, Weibo, WeChat, Youku and more are the main social media channels in China.
    (DragonSocial, 2019)
    ​
  • People in China are spending an unprecedented amount of time online. In 2017, average weekly time spent reached 27 hours, up about 36 minutes from a year ago—the fastest that measure has grown in three years. (eMarketer, 2018)
    ​
  • Social media sites in 2019 in China

1. WeChat: 85.5% 1.08 Billion (Q3 2018)
2. Sina Weibo: 34.3% 446 Million (Dec 2018)
3. Tencent QQ: 69.3% 803.2 million (Aug 2018)

(dragonsocial, 2018)

  • As of Q1 2018, WeChat has 1 billion active monthly users and WeChat user number that check the app daily reached 900 million. More than 100m of users are based outside of China. In 2014, WeChat restricted the number of friends a single user may have to 5,000. (BusinessOfApps, 2018)

  • Top 10 social media sites in 2019 in China

    1. WeChat: All-in-on Social Media in China

2. Sina Weibo: Twitter of China

3. Tencent QQ: Popular Instant Messaging App

4. Toudou Youku: Youtube of China

5. Baidu Tieba: A Search Engine Forum

6. Douban: Lifestyle Discussion Platform

7. Zhihu: The Quora of China

8. Meituan – Dianping: The Chinese Versions of Yelp

9. Momo: Tinder of China

10. Meitu: From the Creators of Meipai

(dragonsocial, 2018)

  • Food ordering, ride hailing (taxi or private car) and travel purchases all saw rapid growth. The latest CNNIC data showed that 44.5% of China's internet users ordered food online in 2017, an increase of 64.6% vs. 2016. (eMarketer, 2018)
    ​
  • China will lead the world in video consumption with the average person spending 105 minutes a day online, closely followed by Russia (102 minutes) and the UK (101 minutes). (TheDrum, 2018)
    ​
  • 44.5% of users claimed not carrying cash was a reason to use WeChat pay. (ChinaChannel, 2017)

Search Marketing

  • 52% of Chinese consumers shops online. 24% of consumers say they shop less often at physical stores.
  • Many retailers and brands started to embrace the growth of digital by experimenting online-to-offline (O2O) marketing, means using online channels to drive consumers into physical stores.

  • 31% of chinese consumers will click on an advertisement that is relevant to them. (PwC, 2017)

  • 72% of online shoppers visiting physical stores before purchases in case of Apparel Goods.

  • 87% of online shoppers visiting physical stores before purchases in case of Personal Care. (Chozan, 2017)

  • Top 10 most popular websites in China 2017:

Baidu.com

QQ.com

Taobao.com
Hao123.com

Sohu.com
Sina.com.cn

360.cn
Weibo.com

Tmall.com

Soso.com

(Alexa, 2017)

  • ​82% of shoppers made purchases through mobile devices.

  • Chinese online shoppers love buying Clothes (61%), Food and Drink (51%), Footwear (44%) and Toiletries (36%). (Royal Mail, 2017)

  • As of July 2016 it is estimated that social media ad spending in China will reach $40.42 billion, a 30% increase on last year's spend.
    (eMarketer, 2016)

  • Top 10 Keywords in 2016.

1. The Rio Olympic Games
2. House Prices Soared
3. Car license-plate lottery
4. All sectors in China now under value-added tax system.
5. Vaccine safety.
6. Hukou reform.

7. Artificial Intelligence
8. Internet Finance
9. Anti Corruption

10. ​Two-child Policy
(China Internet Watch, 2016)

  • Chinese consumers reported using social media to research products or find recommendations. In another, 31% of WeChat users said they used the platform to initiate online purchases — double that of the previous year. Among WeChat shoppers, apparel and personal care are the most popular categories, accounting for about 25-30% of online spending. (TradeGecko,2017)

  • Seventy-seven percent of Chinese people say that online shopping is their “favorite leisure activity” (KPMG, 2017)

  • Top 10 Most Popular Websites in China

1. QQ.com
2. Baidu.com
3. Sina.com.cn
4. Tianya.cn
5. Taobao.com
6. Youku.com

7. Kaixin001
8. Renren.com
9. Tudou.com

10. ​​163.com
(ChinaWhisper, 2018)

  • In China, consumers already use mobile devices to buy everything from organic foods to luxury cars. Fifteen categories, from snacks to financial services, will reach 40% penetration within the online shopping market, compared with just five categories in the US.
    (TradeGecko, 2018)

  • eMarketer forecasts that digital ad spending will increase 26.5% to $62.55 billion in 2018. Digital will account for 64.8% of China’s total media ad spending. (eMarketer, 2018)

  • 788 million people are mobile users, a whopping 98 percent of the country's total user base. (Forbes, 2018)

  • Here’s what China was ‘Baidu-ing’ this year

1. World Cup
2. Royal Wedding
3. The trade war between the US and China
4. The Story of Yanxi Palace
5. RIP Stan Lee and Stephen Hawking
6. Skr (TechInAsia, 2018)

  • 60% Singaporeans prefer to use smartphones when shopping. Desktop shoppers were only half of mobile shoppers with 34%. Meanwhile, 6% still prefer tablets when shopping (iPrice, 2017)

  • Revenue in the Digital Advertising market amounts to US$352m in 2019.
    The market's largest segment is Search Advertising with a market volume of US$127m in 2019.
    The retail industry accounts for the largest revenue share, that is 4.3% of Display Advertising revenues in 2019
    (Statista, 2018)

Email Marketing

  • In the West, you might see a lot of gmail.com addresses in your database, but in China, the leading email providers are: Tencent QQ (qq.com or foxmail.com), Netease (163.com or 126.com), Sina (sina.com), SoHu (sohu.com) (OracleBronto, 2018)
  • ​80% of China's internet traffic comes from mobile phones, thus your website and email template should be designed accordingly, as multichannel integration of email and SMS is gradually growing.
    (TheXNode, 2018)

E-Commerce & M-Commerce

  • Retail web sales totaled 7.18 trillion yuan ($1.149 trillion) in 2017, an increase of 32% from 5.43 billion yuan ($869 billion) in 2016, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce. E-commerce growth accelerated past the 30% mark in 2016, after slumping to 26% in 2016 from 33% in 2015. (digitalcommerce360, 2018)
    ​
    ​
  • Narrowing the focus to China, online retail has developed at a staggering rate, eclipsing eCommerce in the rest of the world as well. Five years ago, China’s eCommerce market was valued at $285 billion. Today, it’s an estimated $1.13 trillion and that number is forecasted to rise to $1.62 trillion by 2020.
    (TradeGecko, 2018)
  • One of the greatest indications of the role e-commerce plays in driving globalization is the amount of cross-border e-commerce between China and the rest of the world. In 2016 the market size of cross-border retail e-commerce sales in China was $78.5 billion; this figure is expected to exceed $140 billion by 2021. (weforum, 2018)

  • Influencers’ livestreams especially are boosting e-commerce market growth; according to a recent Deloitte report, livestreaming in China will lead to $4.4 billion in direct revenue this year, with influencers’ livestreams set to reach as many as 456 million viewers.
    (weforum, 2018)

  • On Singles' Day 2017, Alibaba set a new world record for the highest number of payment transactions during the festival, with 256,000 purchases per second processed by Alipay, its mobile wallet app. A total of 1.48 billion transactions were registered by Alipay across the 24-hour period, with shoppers spending more than $25bn during that time. (GBtimes, 2018)

E-Publishing

  • The traditionally BATS-led market (abbreviated from Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Sina –four of China’s largest social networks) has been shaken up by ByteDance, with its precise Direct Push technology (sending interest-based content to users) supported by algorithms and machine learning. (Kantar, 2018)

  • WeChat has the largest number of users and has been fully integrated into people’s daily lives. In 2017, 88% users said WeChat was their most used app. WeChat supports relationship building between people. It is reported that 33% of users over 60 spend more than 80% of their mobile data on WeChat. (Kantar, 2018)

  • Short videos in the spotlight,The number of users soared above 400 million in 2017, with further growth occurring in 2018.
    (MediaCom, 2018)
  • Chinese social media community economies market was worth more than RMB 300 billion, spanning over 3 million communities and 270 million users, demonstrating that it had already become a complete ecosystem and industry chain. (iiMedia Research, 2018)

  • Revenues realised and enabled by influencers on Weibo exceeded RMB 20.7 billion, including RMB 710 million on ad endorsements, RMB 18.7 billion on e-commerce monetisation, and RMB 1.33 billion on paid subscriptions. (Weibo, 2018)

  • As of June 2016, China has 325 million live video streaming users and the numbers are expected to grow to 460 million by 2018. In 2012, 49. 4% of Chinese users were watching videos on their smartphone; now this figure is at 76.7%. Presently, there are around 200 live video streaming platforms and Apps available here, and more are expected to be made. In 2015, mobile video advertisement spending was $1.75 Billion. In 2016, 35.5 % users paid for content and this figure is set to rise 18.5 % each year. (Storm,2018)

Others

  • Food ordering, ride hailing (taxi or private car) and travel purchases all saw rapid growth.The lates CNNIC data showed that 44.5% of China's internet users ordered food online in 2017, an increase of 64.6% vs. 2016 (eMarketer, 2018)

  • China will lead the world in video consumption with the average person spending 105 minutes a day online, closely followed by Russia (102 minutes) and the UK (101 minutes) (TheDrum, 2018)
    ​
  • 44.5% of users claimed not carrying cash was a reason to use WeChat pay. (ChinaChannel, 2017)
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