The scale of online video users in China has reached 1.044 billion people

In the first half of the year, against the backdrop of the gradual recovery of market demand in China, the digital economy became an important engine for stable growth, which helped to promote the economic recovery and improvement.

According to the 52nd Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Network released by China Internet Network Information Center in Beijing on August 28, China's Internet users are large and growing continuously. By June 2023, the number of Internet users in China has reached 1.079 billion, an increase of 11.09 million over December 2022, and the Internet penetration rate has reached 76.4%.

Based on this, digital development presents the following three major priorities:

1、 Digital services

Digital services include two major aspects: hard construction and soft services.

In terms of hard construction, China's digital infrastructure construction continues to advance, laying a solid foundation for economic and social development.

For example, in the first half of the year, the number of IPv6 addresses reached 68055 blocks/32, an increase of 1.0% compared to December 2022; The total length of fiber optic cable lines in China has reached 61.96 million kilometers, a net increase of 2.381 million kilometers compared to the end of last year. A total of 2.937 million 5G base stations have been built and opened, with 676 million 5G mobile phone users and over 2.12 billion cellular IoT terminal users.

At the same time, the construction of industrial Internet system has reached a new level.

The industrial Internet industry continues to improve the industrial supply level of the end, network, edge, cloud, and use industries, and promotes the integration and innovation of generic and personalized technologies, showing a rapid development trend. As of June, the construction of virtual private networks in China's 5G industry has exceeded 16000; The industrial Internet identity resolution system covers 31 provinces; There are more than 240 influential industrial Internet platforms; The national industrial Internet big data center system has been basically completed.

In terms of soft services, the Internet service experience and user acquisition were further improved.

In the first quarter, the download rates of mobile and fixed broadband in China increased by 59.9% and 15.1% year-on-year, respectively, while mobile data traffic tariffs continued to decline. At the same time, information accessibility continued to improve, and the aging transformation of Internet applications was further promoted. Under the guidance of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 1735 mainstream commonly used websites and mobile apps have completed aging adaptation. A batch of excellent renovation cases are being promoted and applied nationwide, continuously warming the "slow population" in the "fast era".

2、 Digital economy

In the first half of the year, Chinese Internet enterprises seized the good opportunity of the gradual recovery of market demand after the epidemic, actively promoted the recovery of offline business in various scenarios, and helped the high-quality development of the real economy.

Among them, online shopping consumption continues to play a positive role in supporting consumption growth.

In the first half of 2023, the national online retail sales reached 7.16 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.1%. Among them, the online retail sales of physical goods reached 6.06 trillion yuan, an increase of 10.8%, accounting for 26.6% of the total retail sales of consumer goods in society, and the proportion in consumption has steadily increased. As of June, the number of online shopping users in China reached 884 million, an increase of 38.8 million compared to December 2022, accounting for 82.0% of the total number of internet users.

From the perspective of business development, two new trends are evident.

On the one hand, cross-border e-commerce maintains rapid growth.

In the first half of the year, China's cross-border e-commerce import and export volume reached 1.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16%; The proportion of cross-border e-commerce goods import and export to foreign trade has increased from less than 1% five years ago to about 5%, making cross-border e-commerce an important new force in foreign trade.

On the other hand, rural e-commerce has made positive progress.

In the first half of the year, the national rural online retail sales reached 1.12 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%. The continuous improvement of rural logistics system provides strong support for the smooth circulation of urban and rural commerce, driving industrial products to rural areas, and agricultural products to rise. At the same time, various new models such as live streaming sales, direct procurement from production areas, and "e-commerce+tourism+picking" also provide a source of momentum for the development of rural e-commerce.

3、 Digital content

In the first half of 2023, major online video platforms will continue to adhere to high-quality content creation and explore the path of film and television industrialization. The competitive relationship between long and short video platforms will gradually transform into cooperation and win-win, and the industry's development trend is improving.

As of June 2023, the number of online video users in China was 1.044 billion, an increase of 13.8 million compared to December 2022. The usage rate of netizens reached 96.8%, continuing to maintain a high growth trend and almost becoming a universal application.

The high-quality development of digital content is reflected in three aspects:

One is to continuously strengthen the supply of high-quality content and build a good content ecosystem.

Diversified program types and high-quality program content have always been the core competitiveness of video platforms. In recent years, various platforms have continuously strengthened the creation of high-quality content, continuously improved the quality of programs, and created a batch of thoughtful, meaningful, positive, and high-quality programs, driving the increase of user stickiness. In the first half of the year, online video programs such as "Youthful Moments", "Planting the Land", and "Looking Up to See Joy" received good market feedback, fully demonstrating and leading the role of excellent works.

The second is to continuously explore the industrialization of film and television, and promote industry cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

Based on technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing, various platforms continuously deepen technological innovation, build a film and television industrialization system, and promote the entire process upgrade of the film and television industry from decision-making, management to production and distribution. For example, in terms of processes, the platform applies digital management tools to multiple stages such as approval and progress management, improving overall production efficiency; On the asset side, the platform establishes a film and television asset sharing platform to systematically manage physical assets such as props and clothing, as well as virtual assets such as scenes, to reduce production costs.

Thirdly, the competition between long and short video platforms has shifted towards cooperation, gradually achieving industrial co prosperity.

Since 2022, Tiktok Group has reached cooperation with Sohu Video, iQIYI and Tencent Video, focusing on the secondary creation of long video content and the joint promotion of long and short videos. The rich content reserves of long video platforms provide a source of fresh water for the derivative creation of short videos. Short videos have also become an important form of promotion for film and television works. Through cooperation between the two, it can promote a win-win situation for the platform, users, and creators.