253 million internet users in China

According to Mashable - And This is Why China is Every Internet Company’s Wet Dream China now has 253 Million internet users, assuming China has 1 Billion people this corresponds to 23% penetration. In the USA there are currently about 223.1 Million internet users which means about 74% penetration.

Just an interesting factoid; when we say China has 1 Billion people, the rounding error is more than the population of the United States.

The growing internet markets in China and many other parts of the non-western world are

1. Forgotten by US web companies
2. Very interested in developing localised web tools and services of their own.

Mimicry of the west is not a new thing for many of these places, so copies of western websites are quite common now. Facebook, Google, Twitter, Paypal, Ebay and many others already have near identical twins some even with substantial traffic.

The interesting thing here is that there are differences, subtle differences, between the western market and the Chinese market. For example, when many web companies try to create services for a wider audience they fail to localise effectively. Simply making a Chinese translation of a web experience is not enough as there are noticeable cultural barriers. Similarly, when western groups try to create new experiences for the Chinese market they often fail due to a complete lack of knowledge about what Chinese users are actually like.

Internet trends in China

In China many internet users do not own computers and just use internet cafes on a regular basis, also many heavy web users often do not have email addresses and instead interact with other tools like a large messaging network called QQ. In some respects this market and even the elderly internet users in China are a lot more similar to Tween users than the young people leading web tech development in the US today. However another cause of difference is that web based services in China are often geared towards business or leisure but rarely in between so users tend to perceive the internet as a different kind of platform.

Opportunity and Risk

For any company creating web experiences, China could provide a huge user base, however, it could also act as a competitor of drastic proportions or even a business threatening lawsuit. Western companies interested in a global market should get in early and get informed about how their product can be applied and relevant to the Chinese market place. The web may make the world more flat in some ways but cultural nuances are now more important than ever because of the diverse cross-section of potential end users. Users that are considered incorrectly or not at all will not be users for long.