What do you use the internet for?

We found this interesting (kind of) report on people.com.cn (in Chinese) titled “What Are Foreigners Doing on Internet”. This report, written by three Chinese journalists, Zhong Xiang in America,Tang Huiying in France and Lin Xueyuan in Japan, says chatting online is the favourite online activity of the Chinese, Americans usually use internet to search for maps while French people usually write blogs. That sounds exactly right, because Shanghaiist, who is Chinese, is currently chatting with an American friend who just happened to find a really cool map of France, which happens to be the home of her boyfriend, who is live-blogging the whole thing. Exciting!

The number of internet users in America tops all other countries. According to the report, there are 152 million American adults using the internet. In Germany, most internet users are above 14 years old and 80 percent of them use the internet to check email, while 59 percent search for information and conduct business activities, such as purchasing books and booking hotel rooms. More than 6 million French people are writing their own blogs -- they also use the internet to sell or buy stuff. In Japan, it’s very popular to buy things online, as the prices are cheaper than they are in stores. There is also a huge human resources market on Japanese internet. Most Chinese internet users are single males below 20 years old, with no high school education and with a monthly income below RMB 2000. So, girls, good luck finding your ideal Chinese mate on Shanghaiist's new bilingual personals site!

But, take all the figures above with a grain of salt. The survey lists China's online population at 72 million, which is around 40 million fewer than where most recent reports put the number. Anyway, here are the report's figures for internet users by country:

US: 152 million
China: 72 million
Japan: 52 million
Germany: 32 million
British: 30 million
Korea: 24.6 million
Canada: 19 million
Italy: 16.8 million
India: 16.7 million
Brazil: 13.2 million
Spain: 12/5 million
Holland: 11 million
Russia: 10.8 million
Australia: 9.7 million

What does Shanghaiist use the internet for? Researching why other people use the internet. Fun.

Discuss more Internet and Technology at the Shanghaiist Forum.