William Bao Bean, a former analyst at Deutsche Bank and now partner at Softbank China and India Holdings opened AdTech with a quick rundown on Internet usage by China’s youth.

China’s young Internet users interact more online…
Nearly 70 percent of Chinese youth use social networking sites and they have a lot more Internet friends than in the US. Chinese have 37 friends whom they have never met before, whereas US youth have 18 online-only friends.

…download more music…
Nearly 60 percent of youth in China download music, compared with 32 percent in the US.

…enjoy playing free games…
China has 40 million gamers, but only 21 million pay. Advertising supported gaming is gaining traction.

…watch more Internet video than US youth…
The video platform Tudou (which claims 47% China market share) claims 15 billion minutes uploaded per month vs 3.5 billion for YouTube.
Average session Tudou 40 minutes vs 15 to 20 for YouTube
Tudou is now launching an ad system where ads come before the videos.

…and even prefer Internet video over television…
US vs China
18% vs 33% Watch video online
15% vs 27% Watch full length video online
45% vs 30% Turn on the TV to watch a specific television show

…yet, online spending remains relatively low.
While the total adspend of China will be $25.8 billion in 2007 only about 4.3% of total goes online (compared with 12% in the USA). That said, online spend is growing strongly, with 55% growth in 2007. Search ad spending in particular is expected to grow 64% in 2007 and 2008.

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