Chinese food for thought

McKinsey has produced a report: Understanding China's Digital Consumers a study of connected consumers, in which they describe segments uch as 'digital junkies,' 'mobile mavens' and 'info-centrics.'

McKinsey estimates that around 6 million people go online for the first time each month in China and, in their survey of 4,866 connected consumers, they found that typical respondents now spend 39.2 hours online each week, incorporating video, music, gaming, instant messaging and social networking.

'Digital junkies' spend 34.1 hours per week on new media devices such as laptops, MP3 players a e-readers and replace their mobile phones at least once a year; 'info-centrics' mainly use the web for search, information and e-mail, and 'mobile mavens' surf the net for a minimum of 14 hours per week mainly through wireless handsets.

McKinsey concludes that word-of-mouth is increasingly influential in China and, with an internet population predicted to grow from 420 million now to 750 million in 2015, that's a lot of words from a lot of mouths. I wonder what the Red Guards would have made of such democratic communication by the people, through the people, for the people?