Top Biz News

Nation's Internet users exceed 123m

By Liu Baijia (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-20 08:49

Although the Chinese Internet population is second in the world to that of the United States, it has the largest young Internet user population.

The CNNIC survey showed 82.3 per cent of people using the Internet in China are below 35 years old and almost 40 per cent of the netizens are aged 18 to 24.

The ratio of senior middle school students is even higher, at 50 per cent.

"It may be a worrying phenomenon that the ratio of Internet users above 30 years old is dropping because the Internet economy is too much focused on entertainment and young users," Lu said.

According to the Internet market research company Shanghai iResearch Co Ltd, the revenue from new economy-related businesses, mainly Internet and mobile value-added services, was 24.8 billion yuan (US$3.1 billion), but only 7.1 billion yuan (US$900 million) was generated from enterprise services.

Mainland users spent an average of 16.5 hours a week on the Internet, more than those in Hong Kong and many other developed regions.

This year's survey showed more than 30 million people shopped on the Internet, compared with 20 million one year ago.

As many as 25 million people also used the Internet to find jobs, the CNNIC said, and 15 million people took online classes.