Kai-Fu Lee: Age is the biggest difference between China’s internet and the West

China’s internet is massive, but who exactly is using it? It’s a question that plagues many Western companies looking to work their way into China. In a recent post on LinkedIn, Innovation Works founder Kai-Fu Lee shared his thoughts on the biggest difference between Chinese internet users and American ones.

According to Lee, it’s actually not what you’re probably thinking — the biggest difference is age. Lee’s post included the following infographic that illustrates just how large the gap really is.

According to Lee:

The average Chinese internet user is almost young enough to be the average American user’s son/daughter! That is why Chinese users tend to use less email and more IM, less e-commerce and more games, less search and more blogging.

He did admit, though, that his data comes from a study from “before mobile and SNS really took off in China” so those numbers are probably pretty old. Lee says he’ll be sharing more in the coming weeks. In the meantime, an interesting discussion seems to be taking off in the comments section and Lee has even personally responded to one comment, so head on over to the page and toss in your two cents.

This article by C. Custer originally appeared on Tech in Asia and is republished with permission.