News

China Reports Massive Spike In Internet Users

China has the largest population in the world. With it currently estimated as being just under 1.4 billion, it’s clearly a massive tech market. It is also, no secret that while parts of the country are highly developed, others are still reasonably living as it did 100 years ago. It seems though that things are changing, and rapidly.

In a report via CNET, China has reported that around 30 million new people gained access to the internet since the start of the year. This brings their total estimated internet users to over 800 million people.

Why Such A Massive Growth?

There doesn’t appear to be any specific reason for the growth except for growth of development within the country itself. The spike, however, does bring the current internet users to an estimated 802 million people. When you see figures this high, it’s no surprise that both Facebook and Google are looking to get a foot in the door.

How do these figures actually work out though? Are they as impressive as it seems? Well, not really. America has roughly 300 million people who have access to the internet. Their population is, however, much smaller at 325 million. Doing a quick bit of maths, while America has around 92% of its population on the internet, China currently only has around 57%.

Can Businesses Break Into China?

With all the efforts of various Western internet giants to break the Great Firewall of China, the question is, can they do it? Personally, I don’t know. China has one of the most strictly regulated internets in the world. Put simply, if the Government doesn’t approve, it doesn’t go on there. It’s for reasons such as this that Google is working on a highly censored version of their search engine to comply.

While this is encouraging, China has shown on more than one occasion that it is more than happy to shut the door on anyway. Even despite previous positive moves. It will be interesting to see how this develops!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!