China Passes US in Internet Usage and Time Spent Online

China Passes US in Internet Usage and Time Spent Online
Forbes.com

Chinese users are now more abundant and spend more total time on the Web than US users, according to Charles Zhang, chairman and CEO of Sohu.com, whose research says China now has between 150 and 200 million Internet users, who spend nearly 2 billion hours per week online, versus the 129 million hours spent by US Internet consumers.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the US had 154 million active Internet users in January 2006. This information was released by Sohu, when the company opened trading on the Nasdaq last month. But why did it go unnoticed asks Natalie Pace of Forbes.com. Well, the official government numbers from The China Internet Network Information Center say there are only 111 million Chinese Internet users. Sohu says this figure is inaccurate because the survey only queried those with landline phones; a significant number of young Internet users in China only have cell phones. Whether or not Sohu gets into trouble for saying the government's numbers are wrong remains to be seen, but the fact is, we all knew the day would come - soon-- when China would surpass the US in overall Internet usage. Apparently it's already come and gone.