Report: 160m watch online videos in China

By Lydia Chen  |   2008-6-18  |     ONLINE EDITION

UP to 160 million Internet users in China said they often watch or download videos from Websites, a government-backed center has found.

The report was compiled by the China Internet Network Information Center and covered cities in seven regions of the country, the Beijing-based center said on its Website yesterday.

Among online video users, 30 percent have a monthly salary above 2,000 yuan (US$290.28) while 44.7 percent were women, the report said.

It also found that 65.9 percent of the video users spotted new video Websites according to their own online browsing preferences and 63.7 percent said their friends introduced them to such Websites.

About 56.3 percent agreed that search engines played an important role in offering links to video Websites while 42.5 percent said they found videos from links on other Websites, the report said.

Films and TV series were the most popular videos as 86.3 percent said they watched these while online, the report said.

Seventy-five percent of these users have recommended videos they like to others and 94.1 percent chose to send links of these videos via instant message software such as MSN and QQ.

But the video-share inclination declines with the region's economic status, the study found. People in east China were found less willing to share videos with others than users in other regions.

Users were also less willing to post video links in blogs or BBS communities, the report said.