China internet report: Network saves lives in pandemic
By Gong Zhe
Screenshot from CNNIC

Screenshot from CNNIC

The latest China's internet report was published on Tuesday, praising the usefulness of the internet during China's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The half-yearly report made by the government agency China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) details data of China's internet development.

"The internet industry showed great vitality during the first half of 2020 and conquered the COVID-19 pandemic with digital infrastructure, economy, and governance," the report said in the preface. "The internet is the key to track COVID-19 patients and their close contacts, making big contributions to limiting the spread of the deadly coronavirus."

Millions of lives may have been saved with the help of the internet, the report noted.

Online education, remote diagnosis, and remote office also helped considerably in keeping society running smoothly, the report noted.

463 million people are still offline

Though China is one of the most advanced countries in internet coverage, there are still 463 million people who don't have access to it.

"Lack of computer and network knowledge" is the main reason behind the disconnection. Nearly half of the people surveyed by CNNIC said they don't know how to properly use a computer or the internet.

Another 18.2 percent said they had little knowledge about computers. The biggest problem for uneducated people in China to go online is typing. The Chinese language does not have an alphabet. And mapping the 26 letter keys on the English keyboard to Chinese phonetics can also be hard for some people.

If you have learned Chinese before, you will know that spoken and written Chinese are very different. For most people they have to resort to memory instead of logic to remember the characters, which are in the thousands.

As many as 14.8 percent of people don't have access to internet devices like computers and smartphones. An average Chinese person only earned about $4,400 a year in 2019. Spending nearly a thousand on a computer may be too much for a lot of them, not to mention the price for internet connection.

How many apps do you have on your phone?

Another data worth noting in the report is the number of apps installed on smartphones.

For people aged 20-29, an average smartphone has 72 apps installed. Teenagers have more, averaging 83, according to the report. Even children below the age of 10 are using an average of 28 apps.

How many apps do you have on your phone? What are they? Share your opinions on smartphone apps to tech@cgtn.com