A recent report from Tencent’s Penguin Intelligence research team shed some lights on China internet users’ behaviors under the impact of new media.

Update: China New Media Trends 2018

Near half of users browse the internet on mobile for 3 hours or longer a day. Only 10.6% users use mobile less than one hour per day.

54.9% users still choose news apps as their first option for news; 17.7% users choose social apps, which has surpassed users who choose PC news websites (16.9%); users who choose video apps to read news (12.0%) are close to those who choose the TV (13.5%).

Nearly one out of every five users read in-depth articles on a daily basis.

In terms of news types, leisure content (26.6%), photo/video news (20.5%), celebrities/entertainment (16.9%) are most popular to 19 years old users and below. Users in 40 years old and above are more likely to read news about current events (44.1%) and living service (41.9%).

19 years old users and below prefer personalized service (22%) and subscriptions (11.6%), while users in 20 to 39 age group prefer news review (35.8%) and custom channels (16.8%). 40 years old users and above prefer posting, searching, and sharing features.

Close to two-thirds of 19 years old users and below tend to use only one news app on their smartphones. About 70% 40 years old users and above use more than one app.

Display ads are more acceptable across all groups of users, 48% on average.

Users are likely to watch long videos on mobile. Funny contents are most popular (85% users would like watching it on mobile), followed by TV series (78%) and cars (76%). 87% users would watch game video on desktops.

Over half of the users take We Media content as important as the original news report.

55.5% users follow celebrities and enterprise accounts to obtain news; and, 10.6% users frequently get information from celebrities and enterprise accounts.

42.5% users prefer the contest for prize activity organized by enterprises on social platforms.

Technology and capital will merge well in the new media age. Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter has made their efforts to provide news content for users. China also has the potential market for the merging of technology and capital in this new media age.

43.3% users hope to obtain breaking news on their wearable devices according to the survey.

57.7% users would like to obtain news through smart devices in addition to the smartphones.

47% users think social platforms are important to them.

57.1% users choose WeChat as their top channel to obtain news.

In terms of QQ groups, two popular types are relationships groups and hobbies groups, accounting for 33.6% and 66.4% respectively.

63.8% users join new groups of strangers for new information instead of making new friends (36.2%).

18:00 to 24:00 is the most popular time for users to use mobile devices; 53.6% users would use mobile devices during 21:00 to 24:00 period.

About 60% users read news on their mobile devices during spare time; 43.8% on bed (after getting up or before sleep). For video watching, it is 56.4% (during spare time)and 45.8% (on the bed).

In terms of different areas, reading news on mobile at spare time is the most popular activity by users from all different levels of cities, followed by reading on bed. Over 30% users in municipalities read news in transportation.

Also read: China Social Application Users Insights 2016

Over three-quarters of China internet users trust news and information from traditional media in 2016 compared with 70% in 2015 according to a research by Edelman.

Owned media is the least trusted online news source, followed by social media in China.

Weibo was the most active social mobile app in China in 2015 with high user monthly coverage rate and long usage time according to TrustData. Monthly active users of Weibo was 222 million as of September 2015 according to Tencent. Read more…

Average daily reach of Chinese news websites totaled 58.776 million users in September 2015, and the overall effective browsing time reached 110 million hours according to iResearch.

In September 2015, the daily coverage of news portals in China reached 58.776 million users, far more higher than other vertical websites, such as China’s fashion websites and finance websites.

Youth.cn, whose daily coverage reached 930 million internet users, remains the largest news website in China. The daily coverage of Gmw.cn reached 893 million with a penetration rate of 3.5%, ranking second; China.com.cn 772 million internet users with a penetration rate of 3.1%, ranking third. Xinhuanet.com, Cankaoxiaoxi.com, and Eastday.com increased in average daily users compared to the previous month.

Effective browsing time of news websites increased up to 110 million hours in September 2015. Gmw.cn accounted for 8.5% of the total browsing time to 9.5 million hours, followed by Huanqiu.com (7.99 million hours) and Youth.com (7.82 million hours).

Also read: China Social Media Users Insights in 2015

China online news portals’ average daily user coverage exceeded 53 million during period from July 28 to August 3, 2014 according to iResearch. People.com (4.3%) ranks on top with an average daily reach of 11.19 million users, followed by Guangming.com (3.3%) and youth.com (2.8%).

Total effective browsing time on online news portal from July 28 2014 to August 3, 2014 was 25.933 million hours.

Online news portals in China are important channels for marketers. 74% Chinese netizens acquire news online while the proportions of America and the UK are 40% and 38%. Content from online news portals are more authoritative and credible.

Read more: China’s First News Crowdfunding Website