Chinese Internet Users Like Portals Best [REPORT]

comScore has released a report showing a breakdown of how internet users in Greater China spent time online. According to the firm’s research 24.4 percent of netizen’s online minutes in the month of April were spent on portals. Entertainment sites came second at nine percent of total minutes, while search/navigation followed at 6.2 percent.

Surprisingly the numbers say that Chinese users spent only 5.5 percent of total minutes on social networking sites, which comScore says is “less that one-third of the category’s percentage on a worldwide basis.”

A couple of caveats

It should be noted that here ‘Greater China’ includes Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. And perhaps an even bigger asterisk is that the data does not account for visits from internet cafes. This pretty key in my opinion, because I think that those who go online from net bars in China would throw a lot of weight into the ‘entertainment’ category.

Nor does comScore track mobile visits, so a report like this would favor services like Renren, in contrast to microblog Sina Weibo which has a substantial amount of mobile users. Nonetheless the report should still prove useful for the many marketers who are targeting PC users in the region.

comScore also pointed out that Tencent has the nation’s leading portal, reaching 64 percent of all net users. If you’re looking for a more complete picture of Tencent’s online properties, see the study from Credit Suisse which we recently reported on.

Judging solely on statistics, advertising on portals seems like the best way to go about capturing Chinese eyeballs. Social media certainly has potential though, as cosmetic company Maybelline previously employed only Sina Weibo and Renren to engage with Chinese internet users, and did so with some success. Conversations rate where high on both sites, especially on Sina Weibo where there was an unusually high volume of conversation revolving around the product.

Meanwhile in neighboring Japan…

We told you yesterday about comScore’s research into media use in Japan after the March 11 earthquake. That report proved to be an interesting study in how age relates to new media adoption. (Note: I have inquired via email about the sample size of that report, but I have still not heard back from comScore)

Photo: wirespot

With contributions from Willis Wee