The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) estimated
on Wednesday that the number of Internet users in China hit an
estimated 162 million by the end of June. Nearly 100 people a
minute are going online for the first time.
Currently, an estimated 122 million Chinese have broadband
access to the Internet, according to the 20th statistical report on
China's Internet development issued by the CNNIC on Wednesday.
One in every four Chinese Internet users, or 44.3 million
people, accesses the Internet by phone, largely due to lower mobile
charges. About one third of the users access the Internet primarily
via wireless devices.
With Internet penetration rate reaching 12.3 percent, China now
has approximately 9.18 million domain names, of which 6.15 million
end in "cn."
The number of Internet portals currently stands at 1.31 million,
of which the number of "cn" names has grown 137.5 percent annually
to 810,000. "Cn" names now exceed the number of ".com" names for
the first time.
About 67.1 million computers in China are connected to the
Internet, up by 7.7 million in the first six months.
The CNNIC, the country's Internet statistics collector, defines
an "Internet user" for the purposes of the report as someone over
the age of six who uses the Internet on average at least one hour
per week.
Since 1997, the CNNIC has been updating figures on the country's
Internet development using automatic Internet searches, surveys by
on-line affiliate networks and telephone sampling.
(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2007)
