Number of Internet users in China climbs to 505m

Beijing (CNS) – The number of China's Internet users has increased to a record-breaking 505 million as of the end of November 2011, said vice-president Gao Xinmin at the 2011 China's Internet Industry Annual Meeting on January 11.

About 150 million citizens installed broadband access in 2011, an 18.6 percent increase over the previous year. And 340 million people became mobile phone internet users, accounting for 65.5 percent of the entire netizen community.

China's e-business turnover was 2.95 trillion yuan in the first half of 2011, and the figure for the whole year is expected to culminate in 6 trillion yuan, said Gao, adding that the turnover of online advertising is supposed to reach 37 billion yuan in 2011. This 18.1 percent increase means the online game turnover reached 41.4 billion yuan in 2011, and the volume for online video use amounts to 5.63 billion yuan.

2011 was the year for the serious emergence of the micro blog, e-business and mobile internet, in China said Gao.