China has been going through a major internet usage boom over the last little while, due largely to mobile device use. New numbers published by a state supported research group say that for the first time mobile internet usage has surpassed that of laptop and desktop PCs.
Around 83.4% of China's 632 million internet users recorded across June of this year did so via a mobile device, compared to about 80.9% accessing the web via PC. As internet usage as a whole grew around 2.3% since the beginning of 2014, mobile surfing grew 5.4% and usage on PCs dropped between 0.1 and 0.4% over the same time period.
Internet usage in the country has hit nearly 47% compared to 87% in the US. However, even with nearly half the adoption numbers, China had more than double the entire US population logon during June 2014.
While the numbers are still the other way around in most other places in the world, some suggest the combination of low cost phones and the considerably low average income in China, make mobile devices a much more practical internet solution than pricey PCs. The popularity of mobile internet is also likely parallel with the boom of social networks, online mobile gaming and other on-the-go services in the region.
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