500m use mobile Internet

There were 500 million mobile Internet users in China by the end of last year, an industry report said on Thursday.

The nation added approximately 80 million mobile Internet users in 2013 and more than 80 percent of Chinese netizens are using smartphones to log onto the World Wide Web, said the China Internet Network Information Center, a government-backed industry administration body.

The increasing mobile Internet population has powered smartphone-based services, such as video, music and social networks, the center said.

At least 247 million Chinese smartphone owners were watching or downloading video contents as of December, a surge of 83.8 percent year-on-year.

The total number of Internet users in China stood at 618 million, including more than 53 million new users, according to the center.