By February 2001, approximately one-third of consumers in China's
first tier cities have accessed the internet.
Consumers in Beijing are twice as likely to have accessed the internet
than those in Guangzhou, and are three times as likely as those in
Shanghai.
Consumers who access the internet in Guangzhou and Shanghai are more
likely to do so from home than those in Beijing, who are more likely to
gain access at work.
No single website provider has established a dominant position across
all three first tier cities. Consumers in Beijing are more likely to say
they have most recently visited Sohu.com, while those in Shanghai are
most likely to claim to have visited Sina.com.cn. In Guangzhou, 163.com
has the highest level of claimed visitation.
The websites with the highest levels of awareness across the three
cities are Sohu.com and Sina.com.cn. Nonetheless, awareness of both
sites is lower in Guangzhou than either Beijing or Shanghai. Aside from
these two sites, unprompted awareness varies substantially across the
three cities:
- Unprompted awareness of 163.com, China.com and 21CN.com is highest in
Guangzhou.
- Unprompted awareness of Yahoo.com, and Eastday.com is highest in
Shanghai
- Unprompted awareness of 263.net, and FM365.com is highest in Beijing.
