Statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) indicate that 111 million Chinese (8.5 % of all Chinese) are using the Internet. Compared to the data from July 2005 that’s an increase of 8 million. Compared to the end of 2004 that’s an increase of 17 million.

The last half year shows that growth is slowing down a bit, with a million. In absolute numbers it is still a big number though.



Other statistics from the report (based on several news sources as the English version of the report is not yet available)

19.31 million (2,6 % of the rural China population) netizens live in the rural areas

91.69 million of the netizens live in cities, making up 16.9% of the urban population

57.8 % of the total users are from eastern China, the country’s most affluent region

15.9 hours a week is the average Internet users spent on the Internet

64.3 million users have broadband access, an increase of 50 per cent on last year.

49.5 mln computers connected to the Internet against 41.6 mln a year earlier

19.8 + million logged on with laptops, 8 million more than in 2004.

74.39 million Internet IP addresses are in use, ranking China no.3 in the world behind the United States and Japan

100 billion yuan (US$12.4 billion) is spend on Internet access fees in China last year

103.6 Yuan (12.9 U.S. dollars) per month is the average expense of each netizen, excluding the charges of various kinds of services like the e-commerce provided many websites.

(This last part is great Chinglish but until I can see the English version of the report I won’t be able to make much of it. Much more interesting would be to know how much they spend for services, how much they buy online. An indicator for that is the last report by the Markle Foundation that learned that more than 75% of Internet users have never made a purchase on line.)

China is the second-largest population of web users after the US which has an estimated 145 million.

And to end with some sweet propaganda. Xinhua has their own twist by adding that

Currently the Internet popularization ratio in China is 8.5 percent, much higher than the world’s average of 1.52 percent.

Sources: ChinaTechNews, Forbes, 999Today

Xinhua, China Internet Network Information Center