China's netizen population hits 591 million

BEIJING - China's netizen population, the world's largest, continues to grow and reached 591 million at the end of June, the country's network information center said on Wednesday.

Out of all the netizens, 78.5 percent, or 464 million, use mobile phones to access the Internet, up 4 percentage points compared with the end of 2012, according to a report issued by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

Some 69.5 percent of the country's netizens access the Internet through their desktops, and the ratio was down 1.1 percentage points compared with the beginning of the year, the center said.

The CNNIC report said the country's mobile phone netizens have developed a heavy reliance on their devices as they each spent an average of 11.8 hours per week to go online.

This also helped trigger an increase in mobile phone-related e-commerce, including online shopping, payment and banking, which grew 3.3 percent, 3.9 percent and 2.7 percent respectively compared with the end of last year.