The high cost of China's Internet growth
"I bought this online!" Not a new refrain to many in the connected world, but in China people proclaim their www acquisitions with a zeal that reminds the rest of us just how ingenious the Internet shopping experience is. The rapid spread of China's Internet connections means some are only now discovering this 21st century way to shop.
Dangdang is for books, 360buy is for electronics, Mengniu gets your daily dairy supply, and Lafaso delivers yours cosmetics. Of course, on Taobao you can buy almost anything. Online shopping has become one of the most popular forms of entertainment among young Chinese today. But as with anything that grows so big, so quickly, it comes with an unwanted byproduct: Internet shopping addiction.
Li Min, a ‘Internet shopping tribe’ member, or wang gouzu (网购族)in Shanghai, admits that online shopping is one of her biggest hobbies. Her shopping habit over the past three years has cost her RMB 68,400, and she is not alone. According to Sina.com, Chinese shoppers each spend an average of RMB 10,000 per year online. Netizen Lisa, fan of a famous cartoon brand, bought almost every product by this brand online last year, spending over RMB 70,000.
The addiction
In a post on Sina.com, Mr Wu laments his wife's online shopping addiction. “She'd spend hours and hours comparing prices on different websites, in order to find the cheapest,” he says. With a wage of RMB 3,000, Wu's wife spends approximately RMB 7,000 online in any given month. “Our home is full of her 'war souvenirs'.”
Xiao Yi is an online shopping veteran. On the website where she shops she is known as a “yellow diamond shopper,” a title given to online shoppers who spend the most and have the best credit. “So now I only need to type in my password to complete the purchase,” she says. “It's so convenient and it feels like spending someone else's money.” Xiao Yi, also part of the Internet shopping tribe, admits to feeling restless when they haven't received their daily shopping deliveries.
What they buy
Many online shoppers click on the purchase button just for the sake of the cheap prices, but many of them find themselves with housefuls of things they don't need at all. While many of us will have bought clothes, shoes, cosmetics and handbags online for the convenience factor, the addicted take it to an extreme.
A post on Tianya.cn by netizen Wang Rui explains why he wants to divorce his wife. “Underwear, accessories, tea leaves, furniture and even peanuts” are among the packages Wang's wife receives on a daily base. “She has things like a soy milk maker or a juicer delivered to our house,” Wang complains, “but she never uses any of them.”
The diagnosis
“It's like smoking,” says Wang Rui, “before you realize, you are already hooked.”
Netizen Ke ai dou dou tang admits her online shopping addiction feels like a drug addiction. “It's like being sucked in,” she says.
Zhang Qian, who often has over ten windows open on her computer at once, says: “It just feels good to click and buy."
Gu Kaiji, an psychologist at a physiology service in Shanghai, tells Sina.com that many people's addiction comes from pressure in life. “It's either their lives are too empty, so they need this to fill the vacancy, or their lives are under lots of pressure, so they need a release.”
Gu also suggests the worst addicts can eventually become disconnected form the real world. “They should get a real life,” says Gu, “instead of living online.”
So it seems the recent news that China's Internet addicts should be treated as if they have a disease should be defined in greater detail to ascertain exactly what kind of addiction they suffer from.
Now a writer and art communicator based in Shanghai, Xing writes a LGBeat column for CityWeekend and has been covering Shanghai's LGBT issues since summer 2009.