1 Billion Mobile Phone Users in China
January 5, 2020 - China will this month reach the 1 billion mark for mobile phone users, three times as many as 15 years ago. The market for mobile phones in China is bigger than Europe, US and Japan combined and about 80% of the Chinese population now has a mobile phone.
The worldwide use of mobile phones will most likely reach another significant mark later this year, when passing 5 billion mobile phone users, about 65% of the world’s population.
India is still the country adding most users in the world each month and will most likely pass China in total number of mobile phone users within the next 10 years, from their current 910 million.
China also has the most Internet users in the world, 400 million, and their impact on the Internet has been noticed significantly over the last years. One reason for this, a part from the number of users is the number of English-speaking Chinese, which has increased to almost match the native English speakers in the world.
Argument: Chinese economist Lin Yifu estimate that there will 1 billion mobile phone users in China by year 2020, up from 449 million users in October 2006.
Questions: 4G is to be introduced on the market in Japan. How many mobile users in China will be using 4G in 2020? Will the increase in English-speaking Chinese more benefit the Chinese that wants to do business abroad, or people abroad that wants to do business in China?
By Pontus Edenberg
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Comments:
Very good article.
Posted by: Raj
But what will happen to Chinese? Will everyone remain bilingual or will characters on storefronts be replaced with....?
Posted by: Mike
In my openion, the percentages will remain about the same even in 2020 as the author has noted in terms of total Cell Phone users.
Posted by: Jason
Chiense 2.0 Billion
European 1.5 Billion
Indian 1.5 Billion
African 1.0 Billion
Arabic 0.5 Billion
Other 0.2 Billion
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World 6.7 Billion People
Posted by: Race World
I live in China, and I think your prediction about mobile phones is right. But as for Chinese all speaking English, or being bilingual- dream on. While many Chinese are learning English, they usually only learn very rudimentary English. Interestingly, the most common second language in China is Mandarin Chinese, which Chinese students learn in school but is the first language of almost nobody.
Posted by: Scott