China has 152m 3G subscribers

"Of China's combined total of 151.97 mln 3G subs [at the end of March], China Mobile holds 39.19%, China Unicom 32.15%, and China Telecom 28.66%. Of total new mobile subs added in March, China Mobile took 45.25%, dropping its share of China's total mobile user base to 65.9%. China Unicom's share of the total mobile user base increased for the 14th straight month, rising from 20.6% at the end of February to 20.69% at the end of March, while China Telecom's share increased for the 39th straight month, rising from 13.24% at the end of February to 13.42% at the end of March."

Source:  Marbridge Daily, 27th April 2012

Earlier - 128m at end of December

A fifth of online shoppers buy with smartphones

"Payment processing firm WoldPay released its Global Online Shopping Report, which surveyed 15 countries on their e-commerce behaviours in order to uncover differences between nations. It found that on average 22% of disposable income was spent online internationally.
Furthermore, in general the percentage of income spent was higher in emerging markets. Taking the lead is India, where respondents spend 36% of their disposable income on purchasing products or services online.
In China this figure fell slightly to 31% of income spent on e-commerce, and Brazilians were clocked a as dedicating 27% of their earnings in this fashion.
The survey found the spending amounts in mature markets are the highest in the UK, where people spent a quarter of their disposable income on online goods and services, whereas peoples in Finland spend only 13%. Spain and France allocate 17% and 19% of their income respectively.
The proliferation of smartphones has opened up different channels for shoppers to make their purchase, another factor that is proven to vary across the markets.
The survey found that just under a fifth of all online shoppers globally use their smartphone to make a purchase, with people in China using this method the most, (46%), and France coming in last with this metric at 7%."

Source:  Research by WorldPay, reported by UTalkMarketing, 27th April 2012

China has 365m mobile internet users

"According to a report on the state of development of China's mobile internet newly released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), as of the end of 2011, China's number of mobile internet users had reached 356 mln, an increase of 122 mln within one year. By the end of 2011, total smartphone users in China reached 190 mln, with daily mobile internet use per user at an average of 109 minutes a day. Most-used features included Tencent's (0700.HK) QQ instant messaging platform and other IM clients, as well as mobile search.
The proportion of smartphone users who surfed the internet over their phones multiple times a day was 60.2%, 13 percentage points more than the proportion of non-smartphone users who did the same. Although smartphone users were stickier in their use of the mobile internet, the average daily total time they spent surfing on their phones was not significantly greater than the time spent by non-smartphone users on theirs. Average total time spent online per day for smartphone users was 109 minutes, while average total time spent online per day for non-smartphone users was 106 minutes, a difference of only 2.9%.
In the second half of the past year, over 80% of mobile Internet users did not purchase mobile apps."

Source:  Beijing Evening News, via Marbridge Daily, 9th April 2012

There are more than a billion mobile subscribers in China

"Total telephone subscribers saw a net increase of 9.91 mln in February to reach 1.291 bln. Mobile subscribers grew by 10.33 mln to 1.007 bln, and fixed-line subscribers dropped by 419,000 to 284.29 mln. Broken down by traditional fixed-line and PHS, the PHS subscriber base declined by 595,000 subcribers to 16.34 mln, while traditional (i.e. non-PHS) fixed-line subscribers increased by 176,000 to 267.95 mln. 7.32 mln new 3G subscribers were added in February to reach a total of 143.92 mln.
A total of 71.03 bln SMS messages were sent during the month of February, bringing the total for the first 2 months of 2012 to 156.59 bln, a 7.6% increase over the figure during the same period of 2011."
Source:  Data from the Chinese Ministry of Industry & Information Technology, reported by Marbridge Daily, 30th March 2012

86bn text messages were sent in China in January 2012

"China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has released its January 2012 telecom industry statistics. The figures for the month were as follows:
Telecom operating revenues were RMB 92.52 bln (USD 14.66 bln), up 15% YoY. Core services accounted for RMB 81.63 bln (USD 12.94 bln) of the total, up 12.2% YoY.
Total telephone subscribers saw a net increase of 9.94 mln in January to reach 1.281 bln. Mobile subscribers grew by 10.35 mln to 996.6 mln, and fixed-line subscribers dropped by 0.41 mln to 284.71 mln. Broken down by traditional fixed-line and PHS, the PHS subscriber base declined by 934,000 subs to 16.94 mln, while traditional (i.e. non-PHS) fixed-line subscribers increased by 525,000 to 267.77 mln. 8.18 mln new 3G subscribers were added in January to reach a total of 136.6 mln.
A total of 85.57 bln SMS messages were sent during the month of January, a 23.8% increase YoY."

Source:  Marbridge Daily, 13th March 2012

39% of Chinese iPhone users have never bought an app

"39% of China's iPhone users have jailbroken their iPhone and 38% have never purchased a mobile application, according to Chinese mobile advertising optimization platform Guohead.com's recently released Mobile Ad White Paper. 62% of China's iPhone users have purchased at least one app. The iTunes app store saw a dramatic increase in sales in the week following the addition of RMB payment support in November 2011, implying that many existing users were unwilling to purchases apps in part due to a lack of payment support.
Android users are more reluctant to purchase apps, with only 23% reporting they have purchased an app before, while 77% never had."

Source:  Sina Tech, via Marbridge Daily, 29th February 2012

There are nearly 1 billion mobile subscribers in China

"According to the released data from three telco operators in China, there are 987.58 million mobile subscribers in China by end January 2012."

Source:  China Internet Watch, 1st March 2012

Sina Weibo's 300m users make over 100m posts a day

"According to Sina’s unaudited financial report, there are now over 300 million registered users on Sina Weibo now that generate over 100 million posts every day. 9% are daily active users. Sina will invest in Weibo 160 million in 2012.
According to Sina CEO, Charles Chao, Sina will promote microblogging payment system, credit system, and data mining system structures to further improve the commercialization of the microblogging infrastructure.
Sina Weibo will launch a new Enterprise Edition in order to attract more business users. Sina Weibo currently has over 130 thousand certified business accounts."

Source:  China Internet Watch, 29th February 2012

25bn apps have been downloaded from the Apple App Store

"Apple® today announced that more than 25 billion apps have been downloaded from its revolutionary App Store™ by the users of the more than 315 million iPhone®, iPad® and iPod touch® devices worldwide. The 25 billionth app downloaded, Where's My Water? Free, was downloaded by Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China. As the winner of the App Store Countdown to 25 Billion Apps, Chunli Fu will receive a $10,000 iTunes® Gift Card.
[...]
The revolutionary App Store offers more than 550,000 apps to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users in 123 countries around the world, with more than 170,000 native iPad apps available. App Store customers can choose from an incredible range of apps in 21 categories, including Newsstand, games, business, news, sports, health & fitness and travel. The App Store has paid out more than four billion dollars to developers."

Source:  Press release from Apple, 5th March 2012

Earlier - 10bn announced on 22nd January 2011

5bn announced on 7th June 2010

1bn announced on 24th April 2009

Nearly 2/3 of smartphones in China use Android

Click to enlarge

Source:  Data from mobile ad platform Madhouse, reported by Penn-Olsen, 20th February 2012
Note - see the full article for lots more data

82% of Chinese mobile internet users are under 30

"During 2011, the average age of Chinese mobile Internet users dropped again.  82% of all mobile Internet users are 30 years old or younger with 58% falling between 18 and 30 years old.
The 18-30 demographic is important because these are the adults with disposable income.  Also, the disparity between male and female mobile Internet users evened out more.  It is expected that females will out number males within 3 years."

Source:  Data from Chinese mobile search engine Easou, reported by MobiSights, 8th February 2012

Note - follow the link for more data

There are 338m mobile internet users in China

"The follow are some of the numbers coming out of iResearch.  The Chinese mobile Internet market during 2011 reached 39.31 billion RMB.  This created a year to year growth rate of 97.5%.  This growth was supported mainly by the mobile value-added market and the rapidly growing mobile E-Commerce.  We expect mobile E-commerce to fully surpass mobile value-added sometime during 2012.  Mobile advertising, which saw a 101.7% growth in 2011 to 2.42 billion RMB, is another segment that will continue its track record during 2012 as adverstising on mobile is finally being wholeheartedly supported by advertisers..
With 338 million mobile Internet users in China during 2011, we should see the mobile Internet market continue its rocket ship climb this year as well – as long as Europe gets its act together.  If they don’t, we’ll still see very solid growth."

Source:  MobiSights, 7th February 2012

Taobao reportedly accounts for half of all packages posted in China

"Taobao, the largest online retail platform in Asia, mirrors eBay but with an Amazon-like service tacked on. It has a user experience and engagement that puts its Western cousins to shame. Crucially, Taobao has overcome one of the biggest hurdles facing any retailer in China--a lack of trust--by not processing a payment until the consumer receives goods. It reportedly now accounts for half of all packages posted in China, something neither eBay nor Amazon have come close to claiming in the U.S."

Source:  AdAge, 27th February 2012

Caution - I can't find another source to back this up - can anyone help?

Offline advertising spend grew 13% in China in 2011

"According to Chinese ad spend figures released by CCTV market research subsidiary CTR, China's traditional advertising market (comprising television, print, radio, and outdoor media) grew by 13% YoY in 2011, the same rate as in 2010. Television advertising revenues grew by 13%; radio advertising revenues, by 28%; outdoor media, by 1%, with 26% growth in subway advertising and 25% and 34% growth, respectively, in public transportation TV displays and LCD screens installed in office buildings. The top five industries by ad spending in 2011 were cosmetics and bathing products, business and service industries, beverages, foods, and medicine."

Source:  Xinhaunet, via Marbridge Daily, 14th February 2012

There are estimated to be more than 300 companies in China creating fraudulent app reviews

"An industry insider said recently that there were at least 300 companies in China specializing in submitting fraudulent reviews for applications. The insider said that at a conservative estimate 30% of mobile applications used the services of these companies, and that 70% of applications had boosted their app rankings either using their own staff or the services of these companies. The practice of hiring people to boost app download figures and positive ratings, and to leave negative feedback for competitors' applications, is an open secret in the industry."

Source:  China Business News, via Marbridge Daily, 9th February 2012

Chinese gaming platform Mobile QQ Game Hall has over 200m registered users

"Shenzhen-based internet company Tencent recently announced on an official microblog account that its Mobile QQ Game Hall app had surpassed 200 mln registered users, with up to 13 mln users per day of the application and peak concurrent user (PCU) totals of over 1 mln users. With Symbian, KJava, Android, iOS, Windows Phone 7, and HTML 5 versions, Mobile QQ Game Hall clients are available on all major platforms. Several dozen casual games are available through the app, with more being added regularly - primarily casual card and board games such as Dou Dizhu, Chinese chess, and Tetris."

Source:  Tencent Tech, via Marbridge Daily, 8th February 2012

Sina Weibo saw a record of over 32,000 'Tweets' per second during Chinese New Year

"Sina Weibo, China’s cult Twitter alternative, broke its record for the average number of tweets per second during Chinese New Year last night, beating even Twitter’s own best. According to a report from Do News, the microblogging service saw an average of 32,312 messages sent per second, as an astonishing 481,207 messages were sent during the first minute of the new year.
What’s particularly impressive is that the figure is greater than the highest volume of messages ever recorded on Twitter – 25,088 per second — which was hit when Japanese users took to the service during a national broadcast of popular Anime series Castle in the Sky in December."

Source:  TheNextWeb, 23rd January 2012

China has 128m 3G subscribers

"China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has revealed that at the end of 2011, China had over 128 mln 3G subscribers. Included in this figure are 51.21 mln TD-SCDMA subscribers, or approximately 40% of total 3G subscribers, 40.02 mln WCDMA subscribers, and 37.19 mln CDMA2000 EV-DO subscribers."

Source:  CCTime, via Marbridge Daily, 18th January 2012
Previously - 110m at the end of October

China Telecom sold 16m smartphones in 2011

"Yang Xiaowei, deputy general manager of China Telecom, revealed yesterday at the award ceremony for the Open Mobile Internet Alliance's 2011 Mobile Internet Application Innovation Competition in Beijing that China Telecom sold more than 16 mln smartphone handsets in 2011.
Yang said that at the end of 2011, China Telecom had reached 125 mln mobile subscribers, 34 mln of which use CDMA2000 EV-DO handsets, for growth of 180% over early 2011 figures. In addition, China Telecom's mobile data revenue increased by 120%, surpassing revenue figures for SMS and MMS services."

Source:  Netease Tech, via Marbridge Daily, 11th January 2012

Time spent watching TV per day by Market, 2009-2010

Click to enlarge

Source:  MediaMetrie, Eurodata Worldwide, in the Ofcom International Communications Market Report, December 2011
Note - The figure for Canada excludes Quebec
Lots more data and charts in the full report here