Here are a few useful digital statistics and trends from China, after we spent two days at the GMIC Beijing conference.
The digital landscape is really amazing both by its sheer size – and there’s a lot of room for increase – and its specificity, which you can find more about in our other posts:
- O2O: Why China leads the “Online to Offline” revolution
- Internet Plus: China’s official strategy for the uberisation of the economy
China mobile stats for 2015
China has been #2 in iOS downloads for a while, but just last quarter, it took the top spot, according to App Annie’s Market Index for Q1 2015, thanks in particular to “language learning apps like Duolingo and Babbel, brain training apps like Lumosity, and MOOC platforms like iTunes U and TED”, said AppAnnie’s rep on stage.
- Broadband Internet users: 649 million users
- Mobile Internet penetration: 555 million users
- 4G users: 162 million users (should be 250 million users by the end of 2015)
- Mobile Internet revenues: US$1.8 trillion (2014)
Apps usage for China in 2015
- Average number of apps installed by Chinese mobile users: 22. 26% have less than 10 apps installed.
- Use of apps: on average 14 apps used in last 7 days.
- Main use of apps in China: video, payment, social media
- App usage per day: 2 hours
- Top o2o apps: 38% for leisure and entertainment, 37% for group buying, 34% for F&B (restaurant booking), then, in a second category, 18% for traffic, 17% sports, 16% health, 9% travel, 5% beauty, 4% education and 2% real estate.
Advertising stats for China in 2015
Almost $14bn spent on mobile ads in China in 2014 (vs $28bn for the US)
- Average CTR on desktop: 0.88%
- Average CTR on mobile: 2.67%
- Price of 1 fan/follower on WeChat (including creative, management, everything): 5 to 50 yuan (US$0.8-$8)
- Price of impressions on WeChat (again, including everything from creative to management to media buy): 0.5 to 2 yuan, or 500-2000 CPM (US$80-320)
For every 1 rmb of advertising campaigns spent on mobile web, there’s 5 rmb spent on mobile apps
E-commerce stats for China in 2015
- Total retail market in 2014: US$4.4tr
- Total e-commerce market in 2014: US$419bn (online sales represent slightly less than 10% overall sales)
- Out of the $700bn mobile internet revenue expected in 2017 worldwide, China will take $230bn in m-commerce alone (vs $144bn for mcommerce in the US)
- 520 million online shoppers in China in 2015 (vs 140 millions in 2010), vs 200 millions in the US
- 20% penetration for electronics, 3% for groceries
- By 2018, half of all online sales in China expected from Tier-3 cities and below