September 13, 2022

China Mobile Internet User Profile Analysis Semi-Annual Report 2022

【Posted on: 2022 August】

In response to the development of China’s mobile internet market, QuestMobile has made an overall market summary in the first half of 2022. The report “2022 China Mobile Internet Semi-annual Report” highlights relevant development and changes and future insights and predictions.

The mobile internet industry has changed with the continuous changes in the environment. For example, the penetration of mobile application services and smart terminal equipment into the daily life of users has led to multi-dimensional changes in internet companies for traffic distribution and overseas market expansion.

To reduce costs and enhancement, many companies choose to focus on the top traffic, mainly for business development
To improve user experience, major application providers mainly focus on shortening the download process; most of the TOP applications of leading internet companies maintain a stable growth trend
Overseas markets such as Japan, South Korea, India, Southeast Asia, and other Asian countries/regions have become important growth points for many companies to expand their overseas markets and combined with China’s domestic experience and foreign cultural environment as the main idea for market development

The impact of the internet on the consumer life of users mainly includes:

The retail sales of physical goods sold online continued to increase, which increased the overall consumption of the market
The internet has brought about a change in the convenience of life for users who are inconvenient to travel and built a new normal life with the community as a unit
Offline activities are limited due to the limited environmental impact, it increases the active period of users online, especially the combination of “APP + mini-program”, which meets the life service needs of many users in different scenarios
Users can meet the unreachable offline life by watching KOL live streaming, short videos, and other content, the main group is 25-40 years old and has high spending power
The platforms on which users watch live streaming mainly include Douyin and Kuaishou platforms, while WeChat video accounts are currently more fiercely competitive with Douyin due to the continuous improvement of product functions and content ecological construction, its active user’s penetration rate is close to 60%, the number of active users of WeChat video account has exceeded 800 million
Middle-aged and elderly users over the age of 46 are the main source of growth, and the overall traffic growth has stabilized

Marketing and Advertising Strategy

According to the report, advertisements related to home scenarios increased in the first half of the year and internet advertisers maintained programmatic advertising as the main delivery method and reduced the delivery on multi- channels. Several industries have become emerging areas with obvious advertising expansion: pet life, nutrition and health products, interest learning, and the metaverse. In the online game industry, the proportion of medium-to-heavy game types such as strategy games and MMORPGs in advertising has increased significantly, user data shows male and female preferences for gaming are gradually converging.

Content seeding, short videos, live streaming, etc., are key to increasing traffic and sales. The short video platform accelerates the development of e-commerce business by integrating content scenarios and consumption scenarios, reaching users in the form of “live streaming + short video” and then converting them; long video platforms attract attention through content innovation, for example, content such as short dramas can trigger users’ enthusiasm for product usage and ideation, it can increase the amount of content interaction.

Due to the impact of the epidemic, online shopping and e-commerce platforms promoted by the internet have developed rapidly, and the proportion of online consumption has increased compared with offline consumption. Many mini programs provide e-commerce platforms with traffic support in social, search, and payment features, further expanding the e-commerce platforms in traffic, hence the emergence of new forms of e-commerce, which have become the commercialization direction of key investment.

Social media apps have also achieved redirect and transformation for online consumption, for example, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, and other platforms, continue to publish sketches highlighting products/services, or live streaming and promote goods through KOL/anchor, etc., which can effectively drive brand exposure and promote conversion.

Characteristics of Internet Development

Metaverse: the in-depth development of the internet has contributed to the development of the concept of the Metaverse in recent years, and Gen Z has become the core user group because they are the group that is most applicable to the mobile internet, they are also the early experiencers and current major consumer groups of all metaverse concepts such as VR/AR, virtual currency, virtual characters, etc.
Daily necessities: with the enrichment of online platforms and efficient delivery, online purchase, takeaway services, and community group purchases have become the standard for home living, especially in first-tier cities.
Travel and play: the popularity of “camping” related content has increased. Many media and brands use camping content marketing, for example, car brands use camping scenes to promote their brands, and variety shows launch celebrity camping shows.
Home office: Telecommuting has become one of the important ways to find employment, and with the penetration of digital offices, the proportion of user groups in the industry after the 60s and 70s and in the cities below the fifth tier is gradually increasing. Efficient office collaboration applications such as DingTalk, WeChat Enterprise, and Tencent Meeting continue to improve the diversified functions for home office needs and achieve user growth

Education and learning: due to the influence of home and enrollment expansion policies, the education and learning industry has strengthened the online development of education and learning in the context of home learning and self-learning, which has also prompted third-tier and below cities and women aged 35 and below to continuously improve their skills and education level. For the higher education industry, due to the final exam, the user scale of APPs of course tools and question banks has greatly increased; the vocational education industry is more inclined to comprehensive APPs, whose contents include medicine, finance, accounting, finance, teachers, civil servants, and construction examinations and many more.