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Cell Phones Rapidly Penetrating Rural China
9 September 2008
Fresh analysis of InterMedia data shed more light on the urban-rural split in access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). For example, the table below shows cellular telephony is the most popular user technology in China-practically three-quarters of the Chinese adult population owned a cell phone by mid-2007 (or roughly 750 million people). It is also the technology that is advancing most rapidly-in just one year, there were more than 150 million new cell phone users in China.
Though there is a clear urban-rural divide in cell phone ownership, gains of about 15 percentage points in both urban and rural areas tell a different story: Given that about 60 percent of the population lives in rural areas, this implies that this market is particularly promising for cellular telephony. What's more, urban cell phone markets are nearing saturation point. Meanwhile, ownership of personal handy phones-which are cheaper and offer less reliable service-is declining in both urban and rural areas.
| New Media Ownership in China (2006-2007) |
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Source: See Below |
The ICT story changes when the focus is on computer ownership and household internet service subscription, where the urban/rural divide is widening. Computers were found in more than 40 percent of urban households by mid-2007, up from 34 percent the previous year, but rural computer ownership by household stagnated at around 6 percent to 7 percent. Why? There are a number of factors-computers are a bigger investment, generally require reliable electricity supplies and are more difficult to use than are cell phones. Many villagers also aren't familiar with technology in general or perceive that they don't need it, and the internet and its uses are largely unknown to them.
In rural areas, the majority of adults who at least completed high school-and who are more likely to have higher socioeconomic status or be at the top of the rural socioeconomic ladder- already have a computer at home. But high school graduates comprise a rural elite, comprising less than 15 percent of the population. Nearly 60 percent of urbanites have completed high school and computer penetration is far higher. That said, urban groups with lower socioeconomic status are catching up with the urban elites. In fact, the urban poor accounted for the majority of household computer growth in the past year.
Internet subscriptions show similar trends, with a substantial separation between urban and rural access. Broadband is by far the most popular way to access the web in China-in 2007, 14 percent of households had broadband, compared to 2 percent dial-up and less than 1 percent wireless subscriptions. Broadband access is growing in urban areas. In mid-2007, 32 percent of urban households (compared to 22 percent a year before) were connected to the internet via broadband, versus only 4 percent of rural households (3 percent the previous year). As the table below shows, regular internet users in rural areas mostly log on in public places.
Percentage of Weekly Internet Users by Place Where They Most Often Access Internet
Note: Weekly Internet users constitute 33% of the urban population and 9% of the rural population in China. Data based on 2007 national survey (urban weekly Internet users, N=1008; rural weekly Internet users, N=470).
Nearly 9 percent of the rural adult population goes online at least once a week. Half of these frequent users do so at internet cafes. In urban China, more than 30 percent of people use the internet regularly and most (60 percent) tend to do so at home.
MP3 players are increasingly popular and their penetration is growing rapidly. Fourteen percent of the adult population in China own one, with a 27 percent rate for urban areas and 6 percent for rural residents.