Online Users In China Pass 100 Million
Online users in China have topped 100 million, with the internet population reaching 103 million as of July 2005, according to data released by the China Internet Network Information Centre.
The China Internet Network Information Centre also reveals that for the first time broadband usage has over taken dial up connections.
US analyst eMarketer projects that China’s broadband market will continue to be dominated by digital subscriber lines (DSL), with cable accounting for 2.1 million broadband households, or just 6% of the market, compared to 25.6 million for DSL and 9.2 million for other technologies like satellite, fibre, fixed wireless, powerline and other emerging broadband technologies accessed at home.
These estimates are in line with Point Topic’s latest World Broadband Statistics For Mid-2005 which claim that China is steadily gaining on the US to become the biggest consumer of broadband (see Global Broadband Lines Hit 176 Million).
The increasing uptake in broadband is forecast to result in China becoming the leading country in terms of broadband enabled devices, with internet protocol television (IPTV) being one such technology that is predicted to enjoy strong growth in the region.
According to Informa Telecoms & Media’s IPTV: A Global Analysis, China will be the leading IPTV market, with 4.9 million subscribers by the end of 2010. The US is forecast to be in second place, with 3.4 million, while Hong Kong, the leading country in 2004 with 475,000 subscribers, will drop to eighth position by 2010, having been overtaken by the UK with 1.5 million (see IPTV To Reach 25.9 Million By 2010).
