China has emerged on the world stage with global! innovative! and competitive technology companies!” warns the opening lines of the “ China Internet Report 2019! ” published by the South China Morning Post and Abacus. China’s technological rise is! however! nothing new . But the study highlights some significant key points. Here they are.
1. China is the Internet giant
Only 60% of the Chinese population has internet Keys to understanding access! a percentage far lower than the 89% in the United States. But there is a key difference between the two countries: population size! which makes China’s absolute figures overwhelmingly higher than those in the United States.
In China! there are 829 million people connected to the internet (compared to 293 million in the United States)! and almost all of them! 817 million! use their mobile devices (268 million in the US). But the biggest difference! perhaps! lies in mobile payments: 42% of Chinese! 583 million individuals! pay via mobile ! compared to a mere 19% of Americans (i.e.! only 62 million).
2. China has created its own technological ecosystem
And around it! it has built a barrier that prevents access to Western technology.
Every American company! app! or vertical has its counterpart in China: China’s industry email list Google is Baidu (back in 2013! I told you how to advertise on Baidu ); eBay and Amazon are Tmall and Taobao there; PayPal is Alipay and WeChat Pay; Youku what you can manage on instagram with creator studio replaces YouTube; QQ and WeChat are the counterparts of WhatsApp and Telegram; instead of Facebook! Twitter! and Instagram! there are WeChat and Weibo; Amazon Web Services and Microsoft’s cloud services are provided there by Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud! and so on.
However! barriers to entry have not prevented Chinese companies and technology clean email from taking the opposite path: an example of this is TikTok! a Chinese short-video app that is a hit in the West! with 500 million monthly active users worldwide.
3. Chinese tech companies are on a shopping spree
Chinese internet giants operate in multiple sectors! pursuing an expansive investment policy in companies! even in third countries. Together! Baidu! Alibaba! and Tencent invested in 252 companies in 2017! and in 2018! the figure rose to 280 (42 of which were investments in foreign firms).
4. Rural population accelerates its access to the Internet
In 2018! the number of people connected to the internet in rural areas increased from 13 million to 222 million! and the amount of time spent online increased by 30%.