Last week, the Far East Broadcasting Company Chinese ministries released their statistics and analysis on the number of letters received from its viewers in 2004. Last year, the amount of letters and emails that they have received and continues to receive from their audience have increased by 40% since 2003.
The FEBC Chinese Ministries have five program-making centers respectively in the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Canada. The total number of feedbacks they have received from their audiences by these five centers are 30,477 in 2004.
Large porportions of the letters received are from different provinces in mainland China. A large number of them came from Guangdong province with 3,000 letters, Shandong with 2,980, Jiangsu with 2,435, Hebei (including Beijing and Tianjin) with 2,340, and Henan with 2,210.
In addition, 35 letters that FEBC received came from the most remote regions in China such as Xinjiang and Tibet. This means that the range that their radio broadcast wave extends to the entire mainland China.
FEBC pointed out that even though the number of letters increased by 40%, it doesn't mean that their audience have increased by 40%.
"According to the data, in the year 2004, the individuals who wrote us letters only grew by 5% comparing to the year 2003." They emphasized that the large increase in feedback should owe to the growth of internet, which allowed much more people to use emails.
Therefore, FEBC said, one of their important task is to increase the number of audience.
Basing on the letters, FEBC did further research into the component of their audience, and found that 81.36% of the letters are from believers, church leaders and co-workers, while 18.64% are from non-believers. 17.89% of them are under 20 years old, 42.55% are between 20 and 30 years old, 28.00% are between 31 to 55 years old, and 11.56% are over 55 years old. In the aspect of education, 35.66% of them are graduated from universities, 32.02% are graduated from high school, 18.48% finished middle school, and 13.84% are under elementary school or illiterate.
Meanwhile, 34.24% of the audience are students, 45.95% are working, and 19.81% are retired or unemployed.
FEBC describes the situation as "new opportunity, new challenge". They have setup their goal "adding new audiences, shooting for non-believers" based upon the component of their audiences.
"We have to make great efforts to attract the non-believers," said FEBC."The day when Jesus returns is approaching, we have to grasp this time and save the lost souls."
In addition, FEBC also mentioned the positive effects that the website, Liangyou.net has brought upon the youth. It was launched on October 31, 2004, and attracted about 800 visitors per day afterwards. This time, among the 30,477 letters, 2,000 are emails from Liangyou.net. FEBC hopes this online broadcasting site can be a good channel for the youth to know Christ and have their life renewed.
