Forget Millennials, the Internet’s Most Wanted Users Are Older—and Poorer

The Chinese internet’s race to go low: lower income, lower-tier cities and lower internet-service penetration. China’s relatively young internet industry is facing a mature-market problem: User growth for popular online services such as instant messaging, search, online news and video has fallen to single digits. Online population growth has hovered around 5% to 6% annually since 2014, which is only slightly higher than in mature economies. Unlike in many developed markets, a vast number of Chinese are unconnected. As they slowly come online, they’re creating a sizable market that companies can tap into—if they can figure out how.