CNNIC: As of June 2011, the number of mobile browser users in China reached 215 million

On September 28, 2011, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) released a special report on mobile browsers. The report said that in the first half of this year, there were 7.7 million new mobile browser users. As of the end of June 2011, the scale of mobile browser users was 215 million, and 67.6% of mobile Internet users had installed mobile browsers.

According to usage, QQ Mobile Browser occupies 68.1% of the market share, mobile phone built-in browsers account for 52.8%, and UC Browser 46.3%. These three browsers are far ahead of other mobile browsers. It should be pointed out that among users of QQ Mobile Browser, 56.7% use the built-in browser of mobile QQ.

One noteworthy detail is that the penetration rate of QQ Browser among users with junior high school education is 34.1%, which is significantly higher than that of UC Browser at 21.2%. UC Browser has the highest penetration rate among netizens aged 20-29, reaching 49%. "Since users aged 20-29 account for the largest proportion of mobile browser users, this shows that UC Browser users are relatively more active," explained Li Bing, an analyst at CNNIC.

The report said that first impression is very important for the market structure of mobile browsers, and 38.6% of mobile browser users only use one browser. In addition, the switching cost of mobile browser users is low, and more users will try to use other browsers after using them for half a year.

In terms of user structure, mobile browser users aged 20-29 account for the largest proportion of 42.6%, and users aged 10-19 rank second, accounting for 30.1%. In terms of educational structure, people with junior high school and high school education are the main user group, and mobile browser users with college or above education account for only 15.7%.

According to the occupational structure of users, students rank first, accounting for 36.2%; the proportion of mid- to high-end user groups (such as corporate employees, managers, etc.) is slightly higher than that of the overall netizens.

The report believes that the development of 3G by telecom operators is relatively slow. As of June 2011, the number of 3G users nationwide reached 80.51 million, with a penetration rate of only 9.09% among mobile users. Most Internet users are still using the EDGE network with a theoretical bandwidth of 384kbps.

The report said that the average monthly data traffic used by iPhone users abroad is 273MB, and that of BlackBerry users is 52MB. China Mobile's 150MB/month and 500MB/month wireless traffic packages are priced at 20 yuan and 50 yuan respectively. Compared with China Mobile's ARPU value in the first half of the year, the price of wireless traffic is still relatively high.