The AP is reporting on a survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Guo Liang about the average Chinese Netizen.  The survey was conducated in five major cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Changsha and is part of an on-going study to deepen the understanding of the average Chinese internet user. A typical Chinese Internet user is a young male who prefers instant messaging to e-mail, rarely makes online purchases and favors news, music and games sites, according to a new study. According to the study, released Thursday at the Brookings Institution in Washington, about two-thirds of survey participants use the Internet for news -- often entertainment-related -- or for online games. About half download music and movies. They also tend to prefer instant messaging to e-mail, and they are relying on the Internet more frequently than before to contact others who have the same professions, hobbies and political interests. Online purchases still remain unpopular in China. Three-quarters of users surveyed have never bought anything over the Internet, and only 10 percent make purchases even once a month. Among those who do buy online, most pay for entertainment while others buy phone cards, or computer hardware or software. "Many people don't trust the quality of goods bought online," Guo said Wednesday. "If they buy it in a store and don't like it, they can easily bring it back." Males make up two-thirds of the Internet community, and more than 80 percent of users are under 24. Among people ages 25 to 29, 60 percent to 80 percent go online. According to Guo's survey, more than one-third of the urban users surveyed do not use e-mail. Of those that do, only about one-third check their e-mail at least once a day. "I think Chinese people prefer instant contact. Very few Chinese use answering machines and e-mail is like an answering machine. It's convenient but but not immediate," Guo said. Forty-two percent say they do not engage search engines. Those who do seek leisure or entertainment news, as well as information useful for work or study. Traditional news ranked behind those searches. Online portal Baidu.com was used by half of those surveyed, compared with a quarter for Google, the leading search engine in the United States. No wonder Yahoo/Alibaba are agressively pursuing the search market consdiering 42% of internet users in China don't regularly use search engines.  But despite predictions of major growth in ecommerce as well as ad revenues generated by search engines, one has to wonder what is going to be the catalyst which is going to convince the average netizen to start spending online.  If this doesn't happen a lot of people who are expecting enormous growth over the next couple years in the ecommerce and search engine spaces are likely to be very dissapointed. Link: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/051117/china_internet_survey.html?.v=2