Online audio and video users surge to over 900m in China

The number of internet audio and video users in China hit 944 million as of December last year, an increase of 43.21 million from last June, covering 95.4 percent of all internet users in the country, according to a new report.

The research report on the development of China's internet audio and video industry was released Wednesday at the 9th China Internet Audio & Video Convention held in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu.

The numbers of users on short-video, other video formats and livestreaming reached 873 million, 704 million and 617 million, accounting for 88.3 percent, 71.1 percent and 62.4 percent of all internet users, respectively.

The scale of the internet audio and video industry exceeded 600 billion yuan in 2020, jumping 32.2 percent from a year earlier. Moreover, the market size of the short-video, other video formats and livestreaming reached 205.13 billion yuan, 119.03 billion yuan, and 113.44 billion yuan, surging by 57.5 percent, 16.3 percent and 34.5 percent from a year earlier, respectively.

From last June to December, the number of new increased internet users was 49.15 million in China, with 25 percent of them attracted by audio and video, and 20.4 percent of new users attracted by short video.

During past six months, 46.1 percent of the internet audio and video users uploaded short videos, rising 28.6 percent from 2019, with the content about daily life accounting for 42.3 percent, the content of tourism and scenery 31.6 percent, and content about funny, food and music accounting for over 20 percent, respectively.

Moreover, 45.5 percent of the internet audio and video users paid for online videos within six months, with nearly 60 percent of them being the post-90s and post-2000s generation.

The report said that 28.2 percent of online video users do not watch videos at the original speed, especially in the post-2000s generation, with nearly 40 percent choosing to watch at double speed. Men use multiple speeds mainly to improve the viewing efficiency, while females use that due to the slow plot or don't like parts of the scenario.

The online teleplay and variety show themed female topics have become popular in 2020, said the report. The female users are more likely to share, comment and rate the videos, and take actions such as 38 percent of them search plot information, and 27.9 percent to search some products about the teleplay, including music, original novel, cosmetics and clothing.