"TV is Just Decoration"... 70% of Chinese Say "Don't Watch TV"

Impact of Increased Distribution of Smartphones and Tablet PCs
TV Sales Volume and Revenue Decline for 5 Consecutive Years

As the population accessing media via mobile phones rapidly increases in China, TV usage has been found to fall below 30%. With more people not watching TV, home appliance companies are experiencing direct impacts such as declining sales.

According to Yonhap News Agency, local Chinese media including Pengpai News reported on the 5th that the number of Chinese people not watching TV has increased due to the development and expanding influence of online media. Citing a recent survey by the Chinese Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, local media reported that TV usage in China reached 70% in 2016 but sharply dropped by 40 percentage points in just six years.

[Photo by Pixabay]

A similar result was found in an opinion poll conducted last October by local media Xinlang Keji. Among 4,183 respondents, 52.3% answered that they "had not turned on the TV for several months." Following that, 19.6% said they "watch occasionally," and 12.5% responded that they "watch 1 to 3 times a week." Only 15.6% of respondents said they "watch daily for 1 to 2 hours."

In fact, Dai (戴) Mo (33, female), who lives in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China, said in an interview that she hardly watches the TV she bought as a wedding dowry four years ago, calling the TV "decorative." Dai said she mainly watches short video platforms such as Douyin (音, the Chinese version of TikTok) on her mobile phone instead of TV. She also mentioned that her husband, their 3-year-old child, and her parents who farm in the countryside mostly watch mobile phones rather than TV.

Regarding this, the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute cited the "expansion of easily portable and usable electronic devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs" as the cause. Additionally, they analyzed that "the inconvenience of having to watch many advertisements to watch TV and the hassle of changing channels to find desired programs are causing the TV viewing population to rapidly decrease."

This change is directly affecting sales of Chinese home appliance companies. According to statistics from Chinese market information provider Aoweiwin (AVC), the sales volume of color TVs in China from the first to third quarters of last year was 21.62 million units, a 13% decrease compared to the same period the previous year. Revenue also fell by 5.5% to 72.7 billion yuan (approximately 13.3 trillion Korean won), continuing a decline for five consecutive years.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.