The number of people in China using social networking and communication sites or apps rose modestly in the first half of 2017, with 84.3% of internet users using WeChat Moments and 65.8% using QZone.
Weibo’s penetration into the internet market continued to grow, increasing by 1.6 percentage points to 38.7%. Vertical social networks, such as Douban (an interest- or hobby-centric chat site) were used by 8.6% of users.
As of June of 2017, 514 million people made purchases and shopped online in China, an increase of 10.2% over the year prior; of these, 480 million used mobile shopping platforms, an increase of 9.0%, accounting for 66.4% of all users.
Food delivery services grew rapidly, albeit from a somewhat lower base; in June of this year 295 million users ordered food online, an increase of over 86 million users from 2016, representing growth of 41.6%. Of those, 274 used mobile apps to place an order, an increase of 41.4%.
China’s online travel booking industry experienced some growth, with the number of users rising to 334 million in the first half of 2017, up by 11.5% and 34.4 million users from 2016.
The number of people booking train tickets, plane tickets, hotels, and vacations online rose by 37.6%, 19.1%, 20.5%, and 9.3%, respectively. Of the 334 million online booking users, 299 million (41.3% of all internet users) used mobile booking apps, an increase of 14.2% from 2016.
Download the details in the updated China Internet Insights report here.