14 DAY TRIAL // A recent study conducted by Pew Internet revealed that China is currently in an impressive increasing process when it comes to the number of residents accessing the Internet, reaching the 137 million of users barrier in 2007. This is a major increase for the Asian market but the domain is still led by the United States where approximately 165 million to 210 million residents are accessing the Internet. Another research made last week revealed that the Americans are more and more attracted by the broadband connections since the number of residents with home high-speed web connections is increasing.
According to the research, more than 10 percent of the Chinese population use the Internet, most of the consumers being young, male, urban and the majority, students. From the Internet users, almost 70 percent are represented by the residents with ages under 30, 60 percent being male consumers. No less than 2 percent of the users come from urban areas while 3 percent from rural locations.
"At the very least, the Internet will offer ever greater numbers of Chinese a much more sophisticated information and communications world than the one they currently inhabit. An expanding Internet population might also increase domestic tensions that could spill over into China's relations with the U.S. and other countries while the difference between Chinese and Western approaches to the Internet could create additional sore points over human rights and problems with restrictions on non-Chinese companies," it is mentioned in the press release signed by Pew Internet & American Life Project.
In a comparison made by the same research company, it was revealed that approximately 71 percent of the Americans are accessing the Internet, 30 percent of them being 18-to-29 years old. 70 percent from the Internet consumers are coming from cities while 61 percent of the rural areas residents are accessing the Internet.