How to Reveal the Digital Divide via the Internet Survey in China

How to Reveal the Digital Divide via the Internet Survey in China

中国信息社会重要的基础设施建设者、运行者和管理者

3 How to Handle the Digital Divide3 How to Handle the Digital Divide

Outline

1 Deep Concern at Digital Divide1 Deep Concern at Digital Divide

2 The Digital Divide in China2 The Digital Divide in China

中国和谐信息社会重要的基础设施建设者、运行者和管理者

Deep Concern at The Digital Divide in China

What’s digital divide Refers to the difference in the popularity of Internet or Internet application using level

between social groups or regions.

Caused by different developing levels in Internet technology and information resources

during the rapid process of informatization.

Characteristics of the digital divide in China

There are significant digital divides between provinces, urban

and rural, groups due to the social inequality, the imbalanced

industry and regional economy development in China.

The importance of studying China’s digital divide• Unbalanced development of regional economy led to thedigital divide, the digital divide in turn further deepen the region's economic backwardness.• Studying China's digital divide will help to solve the imbalanced regional development, to break the urban-ruralstructure system and to eliminate social polarization in China.



Outline




Digital Divide Based on Internet Survey in China

Disparity between those can access to internet and those who can not• In 2012, the PCs per 100 urban families owned are 4 times than rural, while the broadband access rate in urban is 3 times than rural.

• Access gap is narrowing due to the government subsidizing small appliances including PCs, and the information infrastructure constructions in rural areas.

Access

Disparity between internet users and non-internet users• Provinces 、 rural-urban 、 educational 、 gender gaps is narrowing.• While the structure of Chinese internet users is optimizing, digital divide is shifting to knowledge divide.

Usage

Disparity between high quality users and low quality users• Since 2009, business applications have been maintaining a high development speed while entertainment application growth are slowing down.

• Especially business application usage in rural areas is growing fast.

Quality


Disparity of PC Ownership between Urban and Rural

2010 2011 20120

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Number of PCs per 100 households in Urban & Rural Areas

Urban Rural

• Access gap between urban

and rural areas is huge.

• In 2012, the PCs per 100

urban households owned

are 4 times larger than

rural. But the growth rate

in rural is much more

higher.

• Owing to the government’s

policy of subsidizing small

appliances including PCs,

the PC ownership disparity

is gradually narrowing

down.Resource: China statistical yearbook 2013


2010 2011 20120

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

Broadband Accessof Urban & Rural Areas

Urban Rural

10,000

• Similarly with PC

ownership, the disparity of

broadband access rate

between rural and urban

areas is also huge.

• While the information

infrastructure constructions

project is accelerating, the

gap is expected to narrow.

Resource: China statistical yearbook 2013

Disparity of Broadband Access between Urban and Rural


1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

Coefficient of Variance of Internet Penetration within Provinces (%)

In 1997~2003, the

Internet penetration

difference within provinces

is reduced significantly,

the number of Internet

users in all provinces is

growing fast.

Resource: Statistical Survey on Internet Development in China

Disparity of Internet Penetration within Provinces

After 2003, the speed of

narrowing is slowing down

• Growth of the population of

Internet users continued to slow

down

• But in underdeveloped areas,

the growth rate still remains

respectively high.


2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130

10

20

30

40

50

60

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

Internet Penetration of Urban & Rural Areas

Urban Rural ln(Urban/Rural)

%

The absolute difference is also

starting diminishing since 2012

due to the big achievements of

support policy in rural area’s

information infrastructure

improvement.

Since 2005, Internet

penetration in rural areas

grew faster than urban

areas, the relatively

difference is narrowing

down significantly.

Disparity of Internet Penetration between Urban and Rural



　 % of using mobile only

Ningxia 20.2%

Guizhou 15.9%

Jiangxi 14.0%

Inner Mongolia

13.8%

Shanxi 13.8%

Xinjiang 13.1%

Tibet 12.8%

Yunnan 12.3%

Qinghai 12.2%

Guangxi 11.7%

Hebei 11.7%

Hubei 11.3%

Guangdong 11.2%

Henan 11.1%

Chongqing 10.9%

Shandong 10.5%

% of using mobile only

　 Urban Rural

Ningxia 16.7% 33.2%

Xinjiang 9.4% 24.5%

Guizhou 14.1% 22.0%

Qinghai 8.9% 21.8%

Jiangxi 10.5% 21.7%

Guangxi 7.5% 21.7%

Shanxi 11.1% 20.9%

Henan 5.6% 19.8%

Yunnan 9.9% 17.6%

Hubei 9.3% 16.9%

Hebei 8.3% 16.2%

Anhui 7.5% 15.0%

Hainan 7.5% 14.9%

Tianjin 6.5% 14.8%

Gansu 7.4% 14.7%

Chongqing 9.9% 14.7%

In provinces which Internet penetration are relatively low ， Internet user are prefer mobile than PC.

In those provinces, % of Internet users use only mobile are much more higher than urban, especially in Ningxia, Xinjiang, Guizhou, Qinghai etc..

Mobile provides the probabilities and convenience of accessing to Internet, especially for those who live in underdeveloped areas, and for floating population, low educational and low income groups.

For those whose internet usage demands are relatively simple, mobile are inexpensive and easy to use, mobile is playing an very important role in promoting the Internet diffusion in China.Resource: The 31st Statistical Survey on Internet Development in China

Mobile Helps Reducing the Disparity within Provinces and Urban-Rural Areas


By Dec.2013, the rural Internet users had

accounted for 28.6%.

The rate of growth was 13.5% for rural

Internet users and 8.0% for urban Internet

users

Mobile phone is the main Internet

access devices for new rural

Internet users, help to narrow the

access gap between urban and

rural.

Desktop computer

Laptop Mobile phone

28.3%

2.9%

77.9%

11.1%3.0%

90.4%

Internet Device for Rural Internet Users

Net 1 year old Net half year old

Urban Rural

72.4%

27.6%

71.4%

28.6%

% of Urban and rural of Internet users

2012 2013

Mobile Helps Reducing the Disparity within Provinces and Urban-Rural Areas(continued)

Resource: The 33rd Statistical Survey on Internet Development in China


1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 20120

20

40

60

80

100

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

Internet Penetration of Different Educational Background

colleague and above primary school & high school ln(colleague and above/primary school & high school)

%

The Internet became popular far

more earlier in higher

education group than those

who were relatively low.

Since 2007, Internet penetration

of lower educated population has

speeded up, the relative

difference were rapidly

shrinking.

Disparity of Internet Penetration between Different Education Groups



1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130

10

20

30

40

50

60

0.0

0.4

0.8

1.2

1.6

2.0 Internet Penetration of Male & Female

Male Female ln(Male/Female)

%

During 1997~2001,

usage gap between

genders diminished

rapidly.

In early stage, Internet was

more popular with male ，the relative difference

between genders was

significant.

In 2008, the Internet disparity of

gender almost vanished. But

because of the structure of new

Internet users, usage gap

between genders appear to

increase.


Disparity of Internet Penetration between Male and Female


Usage Gap: Knowledge Gap and Devices Gap

don't know how too old/too young

lack of devices no access to in-ternet

have no time not interested0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

57.5

18.6 11.7

2.8

18.0

10.8

58.1

20.6

10.0

1.8

17.4 10.5

Non-Internet User: Why not use Internet?

2012 2013

• For non-Internet users, the knowledge gap kept them away from learning

how to use Internet, along with another non-neglectable factor, lacking of

devices.



Music Games Videos Shopping

Payment e-Bank-ing

0

20

40

60

8084

69 65

32 28 28

8168 66

41 35 36

7864 65

43 37 37

80

6170

49 45 45

Internet Entertainment Applications & Business Applications in Urban areas

2009 2010 2011 2012

%

Usage Gap of Quality in Urban-Rural Areas

• Overall, the usage rate of Internet entertainment applications are higher than business applications, but the changing has began following with economic growth and expanded domestic demand.

• In rural areas, though either the usage rate of entertainment applications or the business applications is much lower than urban, the usage rate of business applications is increasing faster. Music Games Videos Shop

pingPayment e-Bank-

ing

0

20

40

60

80 83

70 57

18 15 15

73 63

51

20 17 17

69 61 60

23 19 19

71

55 60

28 25 25

…and in Rural areas

2009 2010 2011 2012

%



Outline




Factors Contributing to the Digital Divide in China

Usage Gap of Quality

Usage GapAccess Gap

Specific in China:

• Economy: limited equipment purchase ability

• Geography: limited telecommunication promotion

• Network: limited network coverage

• Education: lack of knowledge lead to insufficient network skills

• Network charges: high online charges effect Internet using

• Consciousness: low consciousness reduce the Internet popularization

• Applications: lack of local characteristics Internet application

• Media: less social media propaganda on the Internet

• Economic impact: less application based on regional economy

The essence of the digital divide is information technology application difference. It is caused by multiple factors, such as the social and economic development, the information network technology, the personal information literacy and income, etc..


How to Handle the Digital Divide

Access Gap

Promote economic

development

Promote mobile device using

Strengthen the infrastructure

Usage Gap

Cultivate network

consciousness

Strengthen the skills training

Reduce network charges

Usage Gap of Quality

Strengthen media

propaganda

Increase local application

development

Improve high quality network

construction

Government

Enterprise Individual


Solutions for Access Gap

Access Gap

The present status ：• Broadband access gap

• Computer terminal gap

Current solution ： • Government ： Broadband

China strategy

• Enterprise ： Mobile subsides

by operators

Promote Economic

Development

Promote Economic

Development

ExpandNetwork Coverage

ExpandNetwork Coverage

PromoteMobileUsing

PromoteMobileUsing

Target ：• Reduce the device gap

• Narrow the telecom resources gap


Solutions for Usage Gap

UsageGap

The present status ：• Internet skills gap

• Internet access gap

CultivateNetwork

Consciousness

CultivateNetwork

Consciousness

ImproveInternet

Using skills

ImproveInternet

Using skills

ReduceNetworkCharges

ReduceNetworkCharges

Target ：• Reduce the knowledge gap

• Increase Internet access rate

Current solution ： • Government ： Rural information

service station

• Enterprise ： Network traffic

package discount

• Individual ： Accept information

technology training


Solutions for Usage Gap of Quality

Usage

Gap

Of

Quality

The present status ：• Lack of local applications

• Less combined with regional economy

Increase LocalApplication

Development

Increase LocalApplication

Development

ImproveRural Network

Economy

ImproveRural Network

Economy

StrengthenMedia

Propaganda

StrengthenMedia

Propaganda

Target ：• Reduce Internet application quality gap

Current solution ： • Government ： Increase the

support to rural e-commerce

• Enterprise ： Develop local Internet

applications, 4G


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How to Reveal the Digital Divide via the Internet Survey in China