As the old adage goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him pay for web-content.” These words ring all too true in the ears of music, movie, and game producers as they pull their hair out, trying to figure out how to make internet users, equestrian or otherwise, agree to pay for downloaded web-content.

China Polling recently studied the web-content purchasing habits of 2,151 internet users in Mainland China to see who was paying for downloaded web-content and how these numbers could be expanded.

Glancing at the general population of this survey’s panelists, only 45% had ever paid for web-content. However, when analyzing those that had watched or listened to streaming content on their mobile phones, a remarkable 57% of panelists responded affirmatively.

The explaining factor for why people are willing to pay for this content does not seem to lie in the method of payment: looking at the top three preferred ways to pay for web-content (SMS debit, Bank Card, and Virtual Account) the breakdown is as follows:

When asked what online content one would be willing to pay for (video, music, games), 28% of the respondents stated they would never pay for web-content. The statistic climbs to 34% when the same question is put to those that had never watched or listened to content on one’s cell phone. Fortunately for those with interest vested in the entertainment industry, only 21% of those that had used their cell phones to experience multimedia stated they would never pay for web-content, thus leaving a very large pool of potential buyers for online content.

This begs the question, “Will online entertainment be able to turn a profit?” The answer: of course, and potentially a very big profit, should producers set their sites on the right target. What’s important for members of the entertainment industry to remember is that opportunity only knocks once, or in this case, rings once.