BCG on China’s Digital Generation

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) released a report on China’s digital generation, which has some finding on China’s Internet and users.

According to the report

• Online chatting is a very important Internet service in China
o 89% of Chinese Internet users using IM, versus 63% usage of email, while in US, 91% of them use email, only 39% use online chatting.
o BCG thinks that it is because Chinese users regard IM as a more advanced service, if they can communicate with contacts in IM, why bother to use email.

• E-commerce is still in its early stage in China.
o Only 28% of Chinese go shopping online, compared with 71% in the US.
o The lack of trust on Internet merchants is the biggest problem for e-commerce business in China. Concerns on product quality guarantee, the reliability of sellers and concerns on their personal financial information.

• The report found that Internet users in China are more social, because higher percentage of them are using BBS/forum and blogs than in US.

• Online gaming is very popular in China, with 85% of Chinese Internet users playing online games and 43% of China’s game players playing games on mobile phones.