January 18, 2006
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The number of Web users in China, the world's second-largest Web market, grew by 18% in 2005 to 111 million, the Economic Daily reported Wednesday.
By Reuters
Some 8.5% of the country's 1.3 billion people now have access to the Web, the newspaper reported, citing a survey released by the China Internet Network Information Center.
State media previously predicted that 120 million Chinese people would be surfing the Web by the end of 2005, as computers find their way into more homes and domestic telecommunications networks grow.
The 2005 gains were higher than those in 2004, when the number of Web users grew 16% to 94 million.
More than half of China's Web population -- or about 64 million people -- accessed the Web via broadband connections, suggesting a 50% increase from 2004, as China strongly promotes the development of its broadband networks.
The Web's explosive growth in China has come despite the government's stepped-up efforts to control the medium, in which occasional pockets of free speech have appeared in chat sites and blogs.
China has the world's No. 2 PC market, with nearly 16 million units shipped in 2004 and that number expected to have grown another 13% last year, according to data-tracking firm IDC.
PC makers such as industry leaders Lenovo Group and Dell shipped 5.2 million units in the third quarter of 2005, according to IDC.
The growth of the Web has also spawned a growing number of local Web players, including Yahoo-invested e-commerce firm Alibaba.com, Web portal Sina, Web game firm Shanda Interactive Entertainment and Web search firm Baidu.com.
Major mutlinationals attracted by the market's big growth potential have also set up shop in China, including Web auctioneer eBay, Web retailer Amazon.com. and Web search leader Google.
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