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Forget Millennials, the Internet's Most Wanted Users Are Older -- and Poorer (wsj.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

An anonymous reader writes: China's relatively young internet industry is facing a mature-market problem: User growth for popular online services such as instant messaging, search, online news and video has fallen to single digits. Online population growth has hovered around 5% to 6% annually since 2014, which is only slightly higher than in mature economies. Unlike in many developed markets, a vast number of Chinese are unconnected. As they slowly come online, they're creating a sizable market that companies can tap into -- if they can figure out how.

"The Chinese internet is experiencing the third wave of [a] demographic dividend," said Wang Hua, a partner at venture-capital firm Sinovation Ventures, at a speech in December. The first wave, he said, were early adopters, while the second was driven by young people in major cities. "About half of the Chinese population is not yet heavy internet users, and they're the third wave of the demographic dividend," he says. "And they're usually the ones that are in charge of a family's daily consumption." Only 56% of 1.4 billion Chinese -- about 772 million people -- use the internet, according to official data. The U.S. reached that level of penetration in 2002, according to the United Nations. Interest in the lower end of the internet market has been building; live-streaming services have managed to attract working-class Chinese. This time around, the spread of e-commerce and new business models are unlocking more potential.

32 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe it's the Great Firewall by BitterOak · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe the fact that China's Internet is surrounded by the Great Firewall is a reason people aren't eager to get on the Internet. If the Internet is nothing but a big Chinese shopping mall and government news distribution site, it isn't really all that enticing for someone to buy the hardware and learn the necessary skills to get online.

    --
    If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
    1. Re:Maybe it's the Great Firewall by aberglas · · Score: 2

      NO. Most Chinese are not that upset by the great firewall. Indeed, their take up of technology has been frighteningly fast. In the cities, it has become difficult to spend cash, even for small purchases. *Everyone* uses WeChat Pay. Everyone, except foreigners who cannot use the service.

      But most Chinese are poor and rural. While there are many billionaires, the total GDP per capita is still about 1/3 the west. Those poor only have basic feature phones if anything. So they are the next place to harvest new users from.

      That said, let us hope that Emperor Xi turns out to be benevolent, because his word is now law.

    2. Re: Maybe it's the Great Firewall by barcavichulee · · Score: 1

      No, I have to say that you are wrong. That guy is right. I am a 21 Chinese college student. Yes, the populsation especially the older generation grown largely because the mobile internet raised in China in the past years. But in the other hand, they are bound to those local Super Apps(Like WeChat, Taobao, Alipay, Weibo....) First, they donâ(TM)t even know thereâ(TM)re a great and expensive Internet space beyond those apps. Second, the Great Firewall is not admitted by government and itâ(TM)s really hard to know even to cross the wall ( just recently, the gov arrested a lot of people who sell this services ) Finally, the censorship is in every social media registered in China, the political content(if not praise the party) will be deleted and the account will be blocked. Trust me, it will be worst then before( after the Culture Revolution) Btw, I donâ(TM)t expand the branch about surveillance. I would recommend an article written by Wired https://www.wired.com/story/ag...\_032118\_backchannel\_list1\_p1

  2. No iPhones by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 2

    This is a market segment that will never buy an iPhone.

    1. Re: No iPhones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They also dodged a bullet on this whole Facebook spyware.

    2. Re: No iPhones by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      People in dictatorships are usually very sensitive to anything spying on them. Something like Farcebook would have never flied in Soviet Russia. People were too used to their private information being used against them.

      The US simply had no history of that. But we're gonna catch up soon to the former East Bloc.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re: No iPhones by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      There is a reason for the old East Bloc joke. It loses a bit in translation but it's still good:

      Don't think.
      If you think, don't speak.
      If you think and speak, don't write.
      If you think, speak and write, don't sign.
      If you think, speak, write and sign, don't be surprised.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. At last... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    Forget Millennials, the Internet's Most Wanted Users Are Older -- and Poorer

    I knew they'd eventually come crawling back.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  4. Re:Millennials are the Least Wanted Human Beings by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

    are you aware that most of the problems today are caused by the baby boomers?

  5. Misleading Title by DatbeDank · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The title should be: Forget Millennials, the Internet's Most Wanted Users Are Older -- and Poorer ... IN CHINA"

    Seeing as it's an authoritarian shithole that I can't invest in or run a business without greasing enough hands, why do I care about their fledgling internet companies' woes?

    1. Re:Misleading Title by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      We need more internet industry stories from Norway.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:Misleading Title by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Re "We need more internet industry stories from Norway."
      Jesper Berg will sell anyone thorium-based nuclear power.
      That will run your nations internet with no fossil fuel.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re: Misleading Title by DatbeDank · · Score: 1

      This is a US based sight... so no.

    4. Re:Misleading Title by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Dude, do you not know, if you to be a failed country to enter shithole status not a progressing country. Is China better or worse than it was a decade or more ago, well, only one answer to that substantively better. Not lets look at your typical Africa nation that Trump clearly has great love for, better or worse, well, worse it's definitely true. Then the biggest shitholes, well, of course all those countries USA delivered democracy to over the last decades, apparently deliver democracy == turn into shit hole because. On the flip side, has the US gotten better or worse over the last few decades, based upon infrastructure, far worse, based upon fairness, far worse, based upon peace, enormously worse, based upon truthfulness, well I suppose they are going for the USA number one Lies Are US award, https://www.youtube.com/watch?... (the USA war or peace, it is clear, which is more profitable at them time is the one they will choose, every time I see the US Congress or Senate, I look on them as Ferengi and then what they say makes a sort of perverse sense, otherwise it sounds like mindless babble).

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    5. Re: Misleading Title by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      Yup. Under B. Clinton our public policy was literally to pack up our factory equipment, mail it to China, then tear down the factory. Clinton and his cronies made some big money off international bribes, and now our country is left with basically no industrial base.

      I really need to start learning Mandarin... we all do.

    6. Re: Misleading Title by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      Dude - I kid you not: I woke up this morning, and I found a Russian hiding under my bed!!

  6. Re:Millennials are discerning. by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Your subject line leads me to believe you exist on a planet other than the one I live on.

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    #DeleteChrome
  7. AliBaba.com Can Fix This... by dryriver · · Score: 1

    ... if you order enough shipping containers with the solution to the Chinese demographics problem in it, you'll get a 6% discount as well.

    --
    Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
  8. Delusions of Grandeur by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you think you're going to reach the Chinese market with the same bullshit methods you're using on us, think again.
    To even get a shot, you're going to have to satisfy God Emperor Jinping and I've got bad news.

    If you're not a Chinese company, with Chinese interests in mind, you're wasting your time.

  9. Re:We can only hope they do by greenwow · · Score: 1

    Not really. I was born in 1955, and most of my older friends and family believe nothing they see on the Internet. That is a problem since they don't believe so many negative stories about Trump.

  10. Older and poorer than Millennials? by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    Elderly hobos?

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  11. Free Internet for Good People by dohzer · · Score: 1

    They should implement some kind of social ranking system, and suppy free phones to good people and ban anyone with a poor ranking.

    1. Re:Free Internet for Good People by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      What makes you think this isn't already the plan?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  12. This bullshit again by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    What the fucking hell do they teach in schools these days?

    Learn about population numbers.
    Learn about adoption rates.
    Learn about market saturation.

    Non-stop growth is IMPOSSIBLE.
    100% marketshare is nearly impossible.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  13. The Older Folks in China Don't Trust the Internet by X!0mbarg · · Score: 1

    Seriously.

    These are the people that have a healthy distrust of their own government already, and anything they generally read has the Governmental spin on it.

    Besides, it isn't going to be free. After all, many of them have carefully balanced budgets that happen to include food, and there's probably nothing left over for internet subscription fees, hardware and additional electrical costs per month.

    Why in the world would they want to get online, when some twitchy tweenager (or Big Brother) can start picking through anything they post and look for anything incriminating?

    Frankly, they have the right idea: Stay disconnected, and you'll be safe(er) from the prying eyes of Big Brother. Let the kids stay connected all the time.

    Might not be too bad an idea to get behind over here...

  14. Re:Millennials are the Least Wanted Human Beings by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

    "are you aware that most of the problems today are caused by ?"

  15. Re:Millennials are discerning. by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Umm... nope. Facebook is overrun by people that didn't grow up at all and believe anything they see and fits their preferred world view.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  16. Re:Are you a fucking idiot? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Well... yeah. Welcome to capitalism, comrade.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  17. Re:Social Upheaval by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    The choice is really only between having state-sponsored news only and being flooded by fake news?

    Really?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  18. let me rephrase that for you.... by gDLL · · Score: 1

    That is a problem since they don't believe so many negative stories about Trump.

    That is a problem since they don't believe the propaganda I believe in.

  19. Re:Millennials are discerning. by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    The world is not divided by age but by intelligence. Whether you're 15 or 50, stupid is stupid.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  20. I thought I was being described by Provocateur · · Score: 1

    But I only look Chinese, you insensitive clod!
     
    These aren't the chicken wings you're looking for. I'm not the delivery guy, either!

    --
    WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.