By Zhang Xi (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-07-18 16:34

The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) on Wednesday released its 20th report on the development of the Internet in China.

The statistic survey report shows that by the end of June 2007, there were 162 million netizens in China, including 122 million broadband Internet users and 44.3 million mobile phone web surfers. Meanwhile, China has 9.18 million domain names, in which those registered on .cn numbered 6.15 million. There were 1.31 million websites, including 810,000 registered with .cn addresses, which for the first time exceeded the number of .com websites.

The report says that users have developed a habit of surfing online with mobile phones due to falling fees. The percent of netizens using Internet cafes to get online was 37.2, making such cafes the second most popular venue for web surfers.

In addition, the survey showed that 76.3 percent of Internet users got information from web news and search engines, and 69.8 percent utilized instant messaging and 55.4 percent sent e-mail. Online music was listened to by 68.5 percent of netizens, while 47 percent played games online.

However, the Internet was utilized for job hunting by only 15 percent of web users, and a mere 3.9 percent liked online booking. Though only 25.5 percent of netizens shopped online, about 20 percent of web users had begun to use online banking and investment services, thanks to the rapid economic growth in China. The rate of online stock exchanges in the country is equal to that in the US.

The report also analyzed the behavior of teen Internet users. Students accounted for 36.7 percent of Chinese web surfers. Their weekly average online time was 11.6 hours. Some 16.6 percent of them were even online for more than 20 hours every week. Teenagers favored Internet entertainment over other online tools.

CNNIC suggests that the time spent online by teens should be limited and network structures should be arranged in such a way as to encourage greater utilization of online study tools.