Number of young Chinese netizens reach 195 million

According to the “2009 Report on the Behavior of China's Young Internet Users”, internet users who are younger than 25 years old make up nearly 51 per cent of all netizens in China, and 74 per cent of these users access the internet by their mobile phones, which is a 24 per cent increase from 2008.

The report further found that internet penetration among this demographic is 54.5 per cent. Out of the group’s average 16.5 hours spent online weekly - up nearly two hours from 2008 - most time is spent on entertainment such as online music, gaming and video, used by 88 per cent, 77 per cent and 67 per cent of the respondents respectively.

In terms of communication, instant messaging is the favoured platform with 77 per cent of poll respondents saying they use a service. Nearly 69 per cent say they used blogs as well, and 51 per cent are on social networking sites.

Earlier this month, CNNIC released another report that found the number of Chinese netizens watching online videos reached 240 million by the end of 2009, compared to 222 million by the end of 2008.