China's internet service and related sectors maintained sound growth in the first 10 months of the year, seeing a stable market expansion of online streaming apps, data showed.
The sectors' revenue totaled 766.3 billion yuan (about 111.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the Jan.-Oct. period, up 18 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
From January to October, Guangdong, Shanghai and Beijing saw their internet business revenues up 17.4 percent, 18.2 percent and 34 percent year on year, respectively, remaining the top three in the ranking.
The sectors' R&D expenditure grew rapidly during the period, up 13.7 percent to 39.1 billion yuan, the MIIT said.
Information services remained the largest revenue contributor, accounting for 91.2 percent of the total revenue, with online gaming earning 159.4 billion yuan, up 18.5 percent year on year.
China had 4.45 million mobile apps by the end of October, including more than 2.7 million on domestic, third-party app stores. Gaming apps maintained dominance, followed by daily service apps and e-commerce apps.