A Third of China's City Folks Own Smartphones
By wchung | 20 Jun, 2026

Among those living in China’s cities, a third own a smartphone, with two thirds of them being used to surf the web daily, according to a survey by Google Inc and research company Ipsos of 24,000 residents of 26 nations and regions.

The 97% of urban smartphone owners who have researched a product or service on their phones make up the second highest concentration in the world after Japan.

Fifty-nine percent of urban Chinese smartphone owners have used their smartphones to buy a product or a service, and over half think they will shop more frequently with smartphones in the future. But 60% of urban Chinese still prefer to use their PCs for online shopping. That figure is attributable to the lack of development of mobile phone-based payment systems, according to Baidu chairman Robin Li.

Smartphone sales have surged in China due to the spread of 3G networks there, making full-featured phones more useful. Shipments of smartphones in China are expected to surpass those of feature phones (standard mobile phones with more functions) next year, according to research company International Data Corp. This year shipments of feature phones are projected to exceed those of smartphones by only 8 million out of total shipments of 280 million mobile phones.

The fierce rivalry among leading mobile phone makers is increasingly focusing on the Chinese market which is over twice as large as the US market. Samsung’s Galaxy S3 smartphone began shipping Wednesday to challenge the popularity of Apple’s iPhone 4S. Priced at 4,999 yuan ($793) the Galaxy S3 supporta all of China’s variety of 3G telecommunication technologies.