China: mobile as a bridge from rural to urban

According to the latest Mobile Habits of The Retail Shopper report by Forrester, the mobile phone population in China is the largest in the world, with almost 20% of the entire world’s mobile users, with 1.1 billion subscribers.But given that half of China’s population lives in rural areas, it’s not surprising these users rely on their phones – often feature phones – to access the Internet for shopping because proximity to stores is challenging.In the smartphone realm young males are the biggest audience, and Android is their preferred system. The influx of domestic smartphone manufacturers all using the Android operating system has made Android-powered phones the inexpensive item of choice in the mainland.Aside from voice and chat apps like WeChat, mainland Chinese are using their phones to look at product and store information – such as location and hours; consumer reviews and deals.Though China is still at a stage where mobile engagement is still seen and used as a marketing tool for the brick and mortar stores, m-commerce is on the way up: according to Alipay – one of the top online payment systems in the country – mobile payments take up 10% of their business in 2012; the company is projecting a double in 2013.Forrester’s survey was conducted during the third quarter of 2012 across Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan and South Korea and during the fourth quarter of 2011 in China. Participants were consumers aged 18 and above.