Mobile Internet, cybersecurity highlighted in China's internet report

BEIJING - New applications on mobile internet and the strengthened cybersecurity management were highlighted in a statistical report on China's Internet development in 2017.

The report, the 41st of a bi-annual series, was released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) Wednesday.

Go mobile

The report found that 97.5 percent of China's 772-million online population used mobile phones to surf the internet.

Mobile internet users consumed more than 21.2 billion gigabytes in the first 11 months of 2017, an increase of 158.2 percent compared to the same period in 2016.

With such a big user size, a series of services boomed when they became available on smart devices.

For example, over 65 percent of the online population used mobile payments for off-line consumption and 44 percent accessed municipal public services through popular Alipay and WeChat Apps, according to the report.

New business patterns such as bike-sharing have also seen a boom in China last year.

By the end of 2017, China had about 221 million bike-sharing users and were estimated to have helped cut carbon emissions by over 6.99 million tons, the report said.

The users cycled over 29.9 billion km in total last year, the report said, adding that the industry has also created over 30,000 jobs in offline operation and maintenance.

Cybersecurity

With the Cybersecurity Law entering into force and the introduction of a series of regulations on various online information services, cybersecurity was general stable in 2017, the report said.

A total of 47.4 percent of internet users surveyed said they had not encountered any cybersecurity problems in the last six months, registering an increase of 17.9 percentage points from 2016.

Meanwhile, the authorities received over 52.6 million solid reports on illegal and harmful information from ordinary users, with an increase of 74.1 percent.

The new law and regulations greatly motivated netizens in filing complaints, the report said.

Innovation

The report also summarized the progress in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), as the number of Chinese AI enterprises reached 592 as of June 2017.

In 2016, the Chinese mainland saw 30,115 applications for AI-related patents.

As of December 2017, there were 77 "unicorn companies" -- private startups valued at more than $1 billion -- in internet and information industries in China, according to the report.

Among the unicorns, over 30 percent were e-commerce or internet finance businesses, while culture and entertainment, automobile and transport, online medical services and AI companies also achieved rapid development, it said.