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China internet users pass half billion mark
China now has 513 million internet users, more than the population of several countries, a new report published Monday said.
China now has 513 million internet users, more than the population of several countries, a new report published Monday said.
More than 28 million new users were added in 2011, the report, brought out by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CINNC), the country's state network information centre, said.
China and India are the two countries where internet usage is expected to boom in this decade; currently there are 121 million net users in India. Keeping in context the population of the two countries, adding up to 2.5 billion people, there is enormous scope for internet expansion in both countries.
The report from Beijing added that more than 69% of China's netizens go online through mobile phones; in the last survey that figure was around 66%. The actual number of users accessing the internet on their mobile phones has grown to 355 million.
Many websites like YouTube and facebook are banned in the country but several Chinese equivalents - for example the twitter equivalent micro-blogging site Weibo - have sprung up and doing well.
