Global Youth: Chinese Millennials' Use of Technology, the Internet, Social Media & Mobile Devices

Earlier this year Accenture released a report that found that young Chinese (14-27 years old) spend an average of 34 hours each week using real-time communications and social media/networking tools. At 34 hours a week, that number is almost triple the average of the other 12 countries profiled in the report.

Global Research on Millennials Use of Technology

Other key findings from the Accenture report:

• Chinese youth dwarfed other countries’ video game habits (14 hours compared to 3.4 for other countries);

• Online Shopping ( 5.1 hours vs. 1 hour for other countries);

• Virtual Worlds (5.3 hours vs. 1 hour for youth in other countries);

• Chinese youth are more obsessed with real-time chat at work than any other nation in the survey. Reporting that on average they spend 9.2 hours each week on instant messaging;

• Chinese are more enthusiastic about posting personal information on blogs or social networks than any other nation surveyed;

• Social profiling is most common in China where Millennials report that 50% of their time using SNS is spent trying to learn more about peers or superiors.

Chinese Youth and Social Networking

Currently the most popular social networking utilities for Chinese youth include QQ, MSN, RenRen and Kaixin. In China there are 640 million people under the age of 24. Like other markets, the Chinese SNS ecosystem is peppered with lots of niche communities.

Related: China’s Top 4 Social Networks

QQ, with 1 billion registered accounts (keep in mind that users are allowed to have multiple accounts, so that number skews a bit high), seems to be the leading SNS with Chinese youth and its revenues were reportedly four times higher than Facebook.

Chinese Youth, Mobile Phones and the Internet

Other key facts about Chinese use of the internet based on China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) data:

• By June 2010, Chinese internet users has reached 420 million, up 9.38% since Dec 2009;

• 41% of Chinese interet users are above 30 years old;

• 88% accessed the internet from home;

• 77% use mobile phone to access the Internet in their leisure time;

• Mobile IM is most popular application, used by 61% of Chinese Internet users;

• Chinese boys are more likely to own a mobile phone  before Chinese girls. In addition, the "network effect" appears to play a stronger role in the adoption of mobile technology among Chinese youth.