China registered 137 million people online by the end of last
year, up by almost a quarter from 2005, the China Internet Network
Information Center (CNNIC) said Tuesday.
Internet usage shot up by 23.4 percent, now concerning 10.5
percent of the country's population, said the CNNIC in a
report.
The statistics were based on telephone sample surveys of 32,325
Chinese, counting citizens above the age of six who use the
Internet for at least one hour a week as Internet users, said the
CNNIC.
Online services like e-mail, search engines, e-commerce, blogs,
online news and games enjoyed rapid development, as well as new
opportunities created by modern technologies, Minister of
Information Industry Wang Xudong has said.
Broadband users exceeded 100 million for the first time to reach
104 million, or 75.9 percent of all Internet users.
Another 17 million Chinese went online via mobile phones,
accounting for 12.4 percent of the Internet population.
High costs and low speed were major factors that impaired the
development of mobile Internet, said the report.
Most of the country's Internet users were male, accounting for
58.3 percent of the total.
The report shows a yawning disparity between the urban and rural
areas, with Internet use in cities 6.5 times that in the
countryside.
A lack of knowledge of IT as well as inadequate access to
equipment and networks remained the main stumbling blocks for those
failing to get online, according to the report.
(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2007)
