China now has 591 million internet
users, according to the latest official
figures from the country.
The China Internet Network Information
Centre added that 464 million citizens
accessed the net via smartphones or
other wireless devices.
The headline figure marks a 10% rise on
last year and indicates 44% of the
country's population uses the web and
other net services.
The rapid growth is reflected in the
valuations of some local tech firms.
Earlier this week the country's most
popular search engine Baidu announced
it would pay $1.9bn (£1.3bn) to buy 91
Wireless Websoft, a firm that runs two
app stores in the country.
A forthcoming
flotation of
Alibaba, the
Hangzhou-based
e-commerce
giant, is also
expected to
value the firm at
$62.5bn,
according to research by Bloomberg .
Western brands have also been keen to
target the market, as was highlighted by
football team Manchester United's
decision to launch a Sina Weibo account
earlier this month.
The Twitter-like micro-blogging service
reported in February that it had more
than 500 million registered users, with
about 46 million people using the
product on any given day.
Another Chinese firm, Tencent, has said
its QQ instant messaging service had
an even high number - 798.2 million
registered users - at the end of last year.
That is more than China's entire net
population, but can be explained by the
app's popularity in Indonesia and other
parts of Asia as well as the fact that some
mainland-based netizens would have
registered multiple accounts.
The China Internet Network Information
Centre's data on internet use goes back
to June 2009 when it says there were
338 million people using the net on the
mainland, 320 million of whom were
doing so via a mobile device.
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