Chapter II Size and Structure of Internet Users

The year of 2024 marked the 30th anniversary of China’s all-purpose access to the global Internet. Through trio-decade development, the size of Chinese netizens was 1,108 million, or over 20%¹⁵ of the global total, with the Internet penetration reaching 78.6%. Over the past three decades, the size of China’s Internet users has increased, the structure of netizens has grown more coordinated, and their digital literacy and skills have improved progressively. Hundreds of millions of people have shared the benefits of Internet development.

I. Size of Internet Users

1. Overall Size of Internet Users

By December 2024, China had 1,108 million Internet users, an increase of 16.08 million over December 2023. The Internet penetration reached 78.6%, up by 1.1 percentage points over December 2023.

As of December 2024, the number of mobile phone users accessing the Internet reached 1,105 million, an increase of 14.03 million from December 2023, making up 99.7% of all the netizens.

In 2024, China’s Internet recorded significant achievements in the development, application and promotion of information infrastructure. In the context, the size of Internet users saw continuous growth, further boosting the release of digital vitality and the sharing of digital dividends.

First, the network infrastructure was made more solid to meet users’ diversified access needs. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments have made overall arrangements and pushed forward the coordinated development of new information infrastructures across regions, networks and industries¹⁶. They have expedited the advancement from the Internet of everything to the smart connection of everything¹⁷, offering support for more users to access Internet services.

As of November, China had built a total of 4.191 million 5G base stations, accounting for 33.2% of all mobile base stations¹⁸. In mobile Internet of Things (IoT), the three major telecommunication enterprises had 2.642 billion cellular IoT end-users by November, representing 59.6% of mobile network end-connections (including mobile phone users and cellular IoT end-users)¹⁹. The pan-intelligent connection of people, machines and things has been advanced in an orderly manner. In satellite Internet, satellite 03²⁰ in high orbit and Qianfan Constellation satellites of group 01²¹ and group 02²² in low orbit have been launched successfully, thus enhancing the capacity of integrated services.

Second, Internet applications have gained popularity to meet the diversified needs of Internet users. With the application and promotion of AI, 5G and other technologies, new digital products and services have emerged, covering areas like office, transport, culture and tourism, elderly care, and medical care. They have met the personalized needs of more than 1.1 billion netizens. Digital events for the elderly have been carried out in an orderly manner²³, and more than 200,000 digital classes for the elderly²⁴ have been held. The activities have allowed more elderly groups to share digital results. By December 2024, 47.4% of Internet users aged 60 and over had the ability of using mobile phone apps in the mode of the elderly.

2. Size of Internet Users in Urban and Rural Areas

As of December 2024, the size of China’s urban Internet users reached 795 million, accounting for 71.8% of all the Internet users. The size of rural Internet users amounted to 313 million²⁵, making up 28.2% of the total. The Internet penetration in urban areas was 85.3%, an increase of 1.9 percentage points from December 2023. The Internet penetration in rural areas was 65.6%²⁶.

In 2024, the digital-real integration sped up the orderly advancement of digital villages, playing an important role in improving the production and living standards of villages and promoting the collaborative development of urban and rural areas.

First, the digital production model in rural areas has been promoted at a fast pace. With the construction of big data resource pools in agriculture and rural areas, benefits brought by enterprises to villages and public welfare activities for farmers’ consumption, digital technologies have been further applied in rural production, such as quality seed source sharing, intelligent farmland supervision and livestock risk control. Through these efforts, villages and enterprises have also well-developed in mutual support.

China has collected data on about 1.107 billion pieces of rural contracted land, 960,000 rural collective economic organizations, 900 million members, and 4 million family farms. The Agricultural QR Code platform has assigned 2.276 billion codes and the Agricultural Information App has served 1.06 million users²⁷. The deep integration of digital production model with the agricultural industry provides a strong impetus to rural economic development.

Second, the digital service system in rural areas has developed. The telecommunication services and the broadband program in border areas have been advanced orderly, so that more people in rural and remote areas have access to the Internet²⁸. 337,800 multi-functional village-level logistics stations have been completed, with the model of delivery, rural e-commerce, special agricultural products and farmers (cooperatives) widely promoted²⁹. The telemedicine service network covers all cities and counties, and extends to communities and rural areas. 70% of health centers nationwide have established telemedicine collaborative relationships with higher-level hospitals³⁰. The digital service system in rural areas, which is getting better, provides strong support for farmers’ production and life.

3. Size of Non-Internet Users

As of December 2024, the size of non-netizens had reached 301 million, down by 16.08 million from December 2023. By region, the majority of non-netizens were still in rural areas. Their proportion had reached 54.4% of the total non-netizens, 20.6 percentage points higher than that of the rural population in the total population. By age, the elderly group aged 60 and above was the primary group of non-Internet users, provided that children under the age of 6 were not considered. As of December 2024, the proportion of non-netizens aged 60 and above in the total non-netizens was 46.8%.

The biggest inconvenience in non-Internet users’ lives caused by lack of Internet access was inconvenient shopping, which accounted for 7.6% of the total. The proportions of inconveniences, such as difficulties in consulting a doctor, registering and buying medicines, in contacting family and friends, and in running errands and paying bills were similar, with each making up between 6% and 7%. Difficulties in getting a taxi, purchasing train and plane tickets, and other inconveniences accounted for between 5% and 6%, respectively.

Shortage of skills, limited literacy, inadequate devices and age factors were major reasons why non-netizens did not access the Internet. 30.9% of non-netizens did not access the Internet because they did not know how to use the computer/Internet; 20.9% did not because they did not master Pinyin or due to literacy limitations; 13.0% did not because they did not have access to computers and other devices; and 10.8% did not because they were too old/too young to access the Internet.

The primary factor for non-netizens to access the Internet was the convenience of communicating with their family members, accounting for 18.7%. Providing accessible Internet devices was the second factor in encouraging non-Internet users to access the Internet, representing 18.4% of the total. Helping to increase income, such as selling agricultural products, was the third factor in promoting access to the Internet, with a share of 15.7%.

II. Internet User Structure and Internet Access Devices

1. Gender Structure

As of December 2024, the ratio of male to female among Chinese netizens was 51.1:48.9, which was roughly the same as that in China’s overall population.

2. Age Structure

As of December 2024, the proportions of Internet users aged 10–19, 20–29, 30–39 and 40–49 were 13.0%, 13.1%, 19.0% and 17.1% of the total, respectively. That of Internet users aged 50 and above increased to 34.1% from 32.5% in December 2023. The Internet has been further applied among middle- and old-age groups.

3. Internet Access Devices

Up to December 2024, the proportions of Chinese netizens accessing the Internet through mobile phones, desktop computers, laptop computers, TVs and tablet computers were 99.7%, 36.2%, 32.0%, 25.1% and 30.8% of the total, respectively. Those of netizens accessing the Internet via smart connected vehicles, smart home devices and personal wearable devices were 10.7%, 22.6% and 23.8% of the total, respectively. The number of netizens using smart connected vehicles to access the Internet reached 119 million.

4. Online Duration

Per Capita Weekly Online Duration of Internet Users

As of December 2024, the per capita weekly online duration³¹ of China’s Internet users was 28.7 hours, up by 2.6 hours over December 2023.

Distribution of Usage Period of Five Apps

In November 2024, among the five types of apps frequently used by mobile netizens, instant messaging apps had a more even distribution of usage period between 9 am and 19 pm, all accounting for more than 5%. The usage peak of online video apps appeared at 12 am, with the distribution of usage period reaching 6.2%. A small peak would reappear from 17 pm to 20 pm, which was in line with the leisure and entertainment schedule of most netizens.

The usage period distribution of online shopping apps and that of online payment apps were relatively similar, with over 80% of the total usage time between 7 am and 22 pm. The peaks in the usage period distribution of online meal ordering apps were evident, with a high correlation with netizens’ meal breaks. The peaks occurred at 11–12 pm and 17–18 pm respectively.

Notes and References

¹⁵ International Telecommunication Union, https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/pages/stat/default.aspx .

¹⁶ China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/202409/content_6972409.htm , August 19, 2024.

¹⁷ China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, https://wap.miit.gov.cn/jgsj/txs/wjfb/art/2024/art_2151f585f93349bea86654660c9cd7ce.html , September 12, 2024.

¹⁸ China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, https://www.miit.gov.cn/gxsj/tjfx/txy/art/2024/art_6b89a8e1b9524d1daab935aa960dbda2.html , December 23, 2024.

¹⁹ China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, https://www.miit.gov.cn/gxsj/tjfx/txy/art/2024/art_6b89a8e1b9524d1daab935aa960dbda2.html , December 23, 2024.

²⁰ The website of China’s State Council, https://www.gov.cn/yaowen/tupian/202410/content_6979253.htm#1 , October 11, 2024.

²¹ Xinhua News Agency, http://www.news.cn/science/20240903/5bf288c1f58a434f97e5b0cb16fb7f64/c.html , September 3, 2024.

²² China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, https://www.miit.gov.cn/xwfb/gxdt/sjdt/art/2024/art_cb12d3fcee804cde90b297eb99e0d1ae.html , October 16, 2024.

²³ China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, https://www.miit.gov.cn/jgsj/xgj/wjfb/art/2024/art_b360ce46d01941f58b60e1d4304eb780.html , May 14, 2024.

²⁴ China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, https://www.miit.gov.cn/xwfb/bldhd/art/2024/art_82b4fe99f49a4025bdffdb97b2362d6d.html , October 23, 2024.

²⁵ The size of China’s urban Internet users reached 795.24 million, and that of rural Internet users 313.08 million.

²⁶ The rural Internet penetration is resulted from the latest rural population size calculated by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in 2024.

²⁷ China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, http://www.scs.moa.gov.cn/gzdt/202409/t20240911_6462374.htm , September 11, 2024.

²⁸ China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, https://www.miit.gov.cn/xwfb/bldhd/art/2024/art_82b4fe99f49a4025bdffdb97b2362d6d.html , October 23, 2024.

²⁹ China’s Agricultural and Rural Information Network, http://www.agri.cn/zx/nyyw/202410/t20241018_8680168.htm , October 18, 2024.

³⁰ People’s Daily Online, http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2024/0619/c458474-40259730.html , June 19, 2024.

³¹ Per capita weekly online duration refers to the average daily number of hours of accessing the Internet multiplied by 7 days in a week in the past six months.