Top Biz News

Nation's Internet users exceed 123m

By Liu Baijia (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-20 08:49

The number of Internet users in China is impressive, according to the latest figures, but one official says the industry has no time to rest.

"The number 123 million seems to be quite a big number, but the penetration of the Internet in China is still just 9.4 per cent, so there is still plenty of room to develop," Wang Enhai, information service director for the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), said yesterday.

The CNNIC, based in Beijing, released the latest figures, which represent a 19.4 per cent growth since June 2005. It's an increase from the previous year-on-year growth rate of 18.4 per cent.

Another reason for optimism in the industry is that the number of broadband users in China reached 77 million at the end of June, an increase of 45 per cent over June 2005.

Lu Bowang, CNNIC senior consultant, said the increase of broadband users is encouraging news to providers of such online services as games and broadcasting, which require high bandwidth.

Nusports, an authorized broadcaster of the FIFA World Cup match highlights on the Internet, earned almost 10 million yuan (US$1.25 million) in advertisements in the past month. It was the service's first appearance on a large scale in China.

The results were based on an online and telephone survey of almost 40,000 people in June.