China: 485M On Internet, 195M On Microblogs, 900M On Mobile

New stats reveal that in China the number of Internet users has hit 485 million, very much spurred on by the popularity of microblogging in the country. Yes, out of all these Chinese Internet users, 195 million of them now own microblog – or “Weibo” – accounts.

In a fascinating report from Sina, citing data from China Internet Network Information Center, we see China’s web getting ever more social as it expands.

Note that this 195 million microblog figure could be polluted by duplicates as a number of Internet user might own several microblog accounts. And not forgetting that there are microblog incubators in China whose primary aim is to “nurture” the accounts and sell them on when they have a sizable number of followers. All these factors could inflate the final figure count. Nonetheless, the microblog craze is still very much in existence.

CNNIC

In the last couple of months, we have seen microblogs in China mushrooming across the web, including variations from Xinhua, Baidu, Netease, and Shanda’s Tuita. For the time being, Tencent and Sina Weibo are the two major microblogs dominating the Chinese market – with Harry Potter starlet, Emma Watson as the latest celebrity to join the Sina Weibo bandwagon.

The latest official figure from Sina Weibo boasts that it has 140 million users across Greater China – that’s mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Sina Weibo’s English version is scheduled to be released by the end of this year, and we can expect its user count to escalate if the roll-out goes smoothly.

One more interesting point is that microblogs are the third favorite online news source in China, according to a research report released by the University of Communications in Beijing.

Apart from the microblog craze in China, group-buying sites have also attracted a great deal of users to the web. The number of group-buying users has grown from 18.7 million users at the end of 2010 to 42.2 million.

For China’s netizens, their desktop PC isn’t the only channel to get online. Many Chinese get on the Internet via their mobile phones – and, guess what? There are a whopping 900 million mobile subscribers in China. No matter how you see it, China’s Internet and mobile figures are staggering.