Chinese Internet Population Grows to 538 Million, Surpassing PC Users

Chinese Internet use has grown to 538 million users as of the end of June, accounting for almost 40 percent of Web penetration in the Asian nation, according to the most recent report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

The country's 388 million-strong mobile use has officially surpassed its PC network, which carries 380 million people. The new pattern is partly a result of China's mobile Internet prosperity, including easier Web access and lower gadget price tags.

"These factors have reduced the threshold for the use of mobile intelligent terminal, which led to the transformation of the ordinary mobile phone users to mobile Internet users," a translated Chinese press release said.

In four years, the country's Internet usage has grown exponentially, reaching 298 million at the end of 2008, then hitting 513 million last year. Still, China's growth rate has slowed in the past couple of years, the release said.

Nevertheless, the 11 percent increase from the same time last year has kept China at the top of the Internet usage pyramid, according to data from the government-sanctioned CNNIC.

No Internet stone has been left unturned, as the report shows that Web video watching has increased by about 25 million. Mobile video usage is more robust, the release said, compared with the steady growth of overall online video users. More than 100 million Chinese citizens use cell phones to watch video, a 27.7 percent growth from the end of 2011.

Similarly, micro-blogging services like Twitter are on the rise in China, garnering 43.8 percent of the nation's population, a giant leap from the former 5.3 percent.

A look at the country's IPv6 addresses shows a growth rate of 33 percent over last year, carrying China to third place among the top IP holders, behind only Brazil and the U.S. The total number of Chinese domain names reached 8.73 million, almost 4 million of which are ".cn" URLs, ZDnet reported.

In other CNNIC number crunching, 455 million users instant message and 34.47 million shop on their mobile phone. Those who provided payments via a cell phone rose more than 45 percent to 44.4 million, ZDnet said.