In China, digital overtakes traditional media

Chinese TV, sorta.

China, with its 688 million internet users, is about to hit another major milestone in its shift to digital. This year, the amount of time that adults in China will spend with digital media every day will surpass the time they spend with traditional media for the first time, according to new data from eMarketer.

Yes, the internet is about to overtake TV, radio, and print combined.

Adults in China will spend an average of three hours and five minutes each day with digital media this year, which will be 50.6 percent of their daily media time.

Chinese smartphone users on the subway. Photo credit: Pedro Serapio.

People will spend more time with media than ever before this year, with China’s projected daily average in 2016 reaching six hours and six minutes, up from six hours last year.

Television is fizzling out slowly.

China’s massive base of smartphone users coupled with hugely popular social media apps and streaming video sites for news and entertainment mean that television is less important than before, as reflected in declining viewing time. The nation’s web users have a number of Netflix-style options from homegrown tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent. Netflix has not launched in China.

“The quality of online video content is certainly improving and this has been appealing to the young and urban population where time spent watching traditional TV has shifted toward digital and mobile in particular,” says eMarketer forecasting analyst Shelleen Shum.

TV, however, is fizzling out slower than you might expect.

“Since its last forecast in June 2015, eMarketer has adjusted its figures downward for the amount of daily time that adults in China spend with digital media. This is because in rural areas, where high-speed internet connectivity can be lacking, TV remains the mainstay and takes up the largest share of traditional media time,” said the research group in a blog post.