Report shows Chinese netizens lead web 2.0

China's digital and online communities are the world's leading users of mobile communication, instant messaging (IM) and web 2.0 applications, according to a new report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

 The report, entitled "China's Digital Generations: The 570-Million-Hour Opportunity", analyzed the rapid surge in the use of digital services in China, predicted the speed and direction of future growth, and showed what companies would have to do in order to successfully connect to China's online consumers. In the course of this, BCG, the global management consulting firm and the world's leading advisor on business strategy, also dispelled a number of myths that surround the Chinese Internet.

"Many people in the West think that China is still early in its digital development. In fact, in many activities such as IM and blogging, China is more advanced than the United States and other Western economies," said Christoph Nettesheim, one of the report's co-authors and a senior partner and managing director in BCG's Beijing office.

Today, China's Internet users do not only outnumber Internet users in the United States, with 2.7 hours daily-or, collectively, just under 570 million hours per day-they also spend more time online.

They are quicker in adopting the most advanced kind of services such as watching videos and movies, playing games and sharing music. Where most American netizens still rely on emails to communicate with each other, their Chinese counterparts use IM and web 2.0 applications.