Fields of Essence

Chinese Internet population soars
January 25, 2007
The population of Internet users in China leapt to 137 million last year, up by a quarter on 2005, new figures show. Data from the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) indicates that the number of web users in China rose at the highest annual rate ever in 2006, with 76 percent of Chinese Internet users accessing the web from home.

The 23 percent growth in Internet user population, an increase of 26 million people, means that around 10 percent of the Chinese population is now connected to the Internet. China's netizen (also known as a cybercitizen) population is now the second-biggest in the world, with an estimated 104 million broadband users in the country.

According to the 19th Internet Development report, the most popular pastime among young Chinese people is now surfing the Internet. There are now more than 843,000 websites in China and over 1.8 million .cn domain names were registered in 2006.