More lower-tier consumers skip PCs, laptops and use mobiles to access internet: GroupM

The first release in this year's ‘Project Deep Dive’ study shows almost a third (32 per cent) of consumers in tier-three and tier-four cities have accessed the internet via mobile devices this year. This marks an increase of 351 per cent from 2009.

The rapid development of mobile internet use is prominent among people aged 15 to 45 in lower-tier markets. The most popular mobile devices are smartphones (20 per cent), feature phones (12 per cent), tablets (2 per cent) and netbooks (1 per cent).

The development path of internet use in lower-tier markets has been markedly different from that of upper-tiers, which gives marketers who use mobile internet to improve brand experiences a chance to gain an edge over their competitors, according to GroupM.

In general, lower-tier consumers spent an average of 12.59 hours on mobile internet per week—an increase of 3.31 hours from 2011. Instant-messaging (93 per cent), searching (27 per cent), e-book reading (22 per cent) and Weibo-posting (18 per cent) are the main mobile activities.

Convergent multiscreen access between PC, TV and mobile is now more common, according to the study. Twenty-six per cent of lower-tier consumers are three-screen users, 64 per cent are dual-screen overlappers, while 70 per cent use a PC and watch TV at the same time.

‘Project Deep Dive’ "provides unique value for brands in a better understanding of China’s lower-tier markets and in developing market strategy”, said Bessie Lee, CEO of GroupM China.

The project combines both qualitative and quantitative research covering a total sample size of 10,000 consumers from 28 provinces, 69 prefecture-level cities, 148 county-level cities, and 408 counties in China. The projected audience includes 620 million lower-tier consumers, equivalent to 46 per cent of the entire Chinese population.

First-hand data and in-depth insights of the media habits, consumption behaviour, brand preferences and values of lower-tier consumers have been gained from four successive waves of this study in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2012.

Qualitative elements were added in the 2012 wave, using anthropological methods that include in-depth interviews, accompanied visits and focus-group discussions for 312 consumers in eight provinces.