In the report, the growth of China’s internet network in 2018 did not only happened in the width but also the depth.
Person surfs internet. Photo: John Schnobrich on Unsplash
China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) published the newest statistical report on internet development. In the report, the growth of China’s internet network in 2018 did not only happened in the width but also the depth.
Compared with 2017, internet users increased by 3.8% and a total of 829 million citizens are internet users prior to the end of 2018, which composed 59.6% of the entire population in China. Among internet users, the users using cells to connect to internet sum to 817 million. The mobile internet has the dominant status in citizens’ daily life and also enables the emergence and prosperity of startups and companies that rose from mobile internet’s prevalence.
The report released statistical data from a general trend to industries with details. In e-commerce, the online retail revenue reached CNY 9.0 trillion (USD 1.3 trillion) with a YOY 23.9%. The revenue generated from sub-area (rural areas, towns, and villages) e-commerce increased to CNY 1.4 trillion with a YOY 30.7%. As introduced earlier, Pinduoduo and alike e-commerce platforms discovered the massive consumption need from sub-areas and operated the business in these areas.
The growth of e-commerce retail in sub-areas may still maintain at a higher rate than the general growth of e-commerce retail considering the rural population and internet users. As a representative of e-commerce bodies that serve rural areas, Pinduoduo will focus on distributing agricultural products to urban areas and improving the platform environment for a better shopping experience.
Fast-growing e-commerce accelerated the development of mobile payment and parcel delivery business. Currently, Alipay and WeChat Pay are the two largest mobile payment service providers, and Union Pay is chasing after the two giants. Released in the report, the mobile payment transaction numbered at 16.9 billion and the amount totaled at CNY 65.5 trillion (USD 9.8 trillion) with YOY 74.2% and 32.9% respectively; the parcels delivered in 2018 summed to 50.7 million.
Other than e-commerce, other fields have made progress in 2018. The 5G technologies were pushed by Huawei, ZTE, and Datang under the guidance of the government. The NSA (Non-standalone) tests were completed and now is testing SA (Standalone) network and devices. Based on the progress of the 5G network, related chip’s R&D and IoT are brought to the agenda.
As for cloud computing, AliCloud was the model cloud computing service provider. AliCloud’s revenue generated in 2018 is CNY 21.4 billion (USD 3.2 billion) and its global public cloud market share has become the third place right after AWS and Microsoft. Tencent cloud generated revenue over CNY 6 billion (USD 895.7 million) with a YOY surpassed 100%.
The growth of cloud computing solidifies the foundation of digital economics and administration. The penetration rate of cloud computing in different fields vary but the application in the government system is the most mature. Cloud computing supports the traffic of the government system and allows Smart City to become realizable.
Besides the above-mentioned areas, blockchain, supercomputer, and others are all included in the report. The report also addressed the cybersecurity status in China and hacks statistics.