(
MENAFN- Asia Times)
There is no country on earth where people are crazier to replace their handsets than China. That is what the annual Deloitte's Global Mobile Consumer Survey has shown. It ranked China as No.1 in terms of buying a new handset.
About 30% of the Chinese mobile-phone users surveyed – and the total number of people questioned was relatively small – bought a new handset in 2018, well over the global average of 21%.
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Almost all Chinese buyers bought a brand-new phone while only 1% acquired a second-hand phone.
All told, China had a mobile penetration rate of 96%, up 7% in 2018, the highest in the world. Nine out of every 10 people around the globe allegedly have a mobile phone.
That explains why smartphone manufacturers like Apple, Samsung and Huawei have made so much money over the past decade – and why investors wonder if Apple can do even better in the years to come given its achievement.
In regard to their buying habit, over 52% of Chinese people surveyed said they prefer to buy new phones online, compared to the global average of 28%.
The survey, which surveyed 500 t0 1,000 respondents in 16 countries, showed that close to 90% of the population had used instant messaging and social media once.
Some 88% of Chinese mobile users said they use instant messaging every day, compared with a global average of 61%. Likewise, 86% said they use social media every day, as compared with the global average of 57%.
Facebook, Twitter and even Google are not allowed in a tightly-controlled nation like China. Only Tencent's WeChat and QQ, and Sina's Weibo benefit from business there.
And in a country whose largest banknote is capped at 100 yuan (US$14.7), it is not difficult to understand why mobile payment has been so popular. The usage of mobile payment – both domestic and cross-border – were up 60% last year, same as in European countries.
That is also why the world is getting more cashless since the largest populated nation is dropping cash as its major medium of transaction.
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