Once China loosened its rules regarding trade with the west, its economic enviornment changed dramatically. Local and foreign entrepreneurs have been quick to grab a piece of the huge, growing market.
China has a population of over 1.325 BILLION people. China is a vast country and as such, immediate internet access to all is not a sound economic proposition. However, over 253 million do. And the incredible thing is, over 84% of them connect via Broadband.
However, the main obstacle for many marketers was the poor infrastructure to support credit card processing. In addition, Chinese shoppers are renowned to be very conservative in their approach to shopping, and have always prepared to spend 'today's money', cash. In an article in Forbes Magazine, this theory was well an truly put to bed.com which illustrated that it was the slow access to credit cards that prevented more online shopping.
The exciting news is that banks in China are now offering credit card services to their clients, and by 2013 it is estimated that 250 million credit cards will have been issued to Chinese people in China. This can only be good news for savvy online businesses who are prepared to venture into this market. By its very nature, the internet provides a global market for any product or service, and anyone with a credit card and reliable internet access is your potential customer.
The China Internet Network Information Center (CINIC) released in mid 2008 a detailed report on internet development in China, and the future of e-commerce was explored.
The report showed that online shopping was a growing pastime in China, with 63.29 million people having shopped online. The highest number of online shoppers, not surprisingly, are in the major cities of Beijing and Shanghai.
22.5% of Chinese people use online payment processing (this represents almost 24 million people!), and over 23% use online banking. These numbers reflect a 71.7% growth in the 12 months to June 2008.
The Chinese are looking to access online resources to improve themselves - information marketers take note! Online education in China is used by 46.69 million people.
There is no doubt that it is the city-dwelling, educated Chinese who are embracing this technology, and statistics show that they are mainly young people. 73 million Chinese access the internet via their mobile phones, and 86% of these are under 30 years of age.
No internet marketer can afford to be without a good understanding of this lucrative market. The number of Chinese internet users is mindblowing and Chinese eWhispers shows how this opens up huge opportunities for internet marketers.
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