China had 210 million Internet users at the end of 2007 and would need to add five million more to bridge the gap with the US.
BEIJING: China may soon boast of the world's most internet users, overtaking the US by this year, a survey said.
China had 210 million Internet users at the end of 2007 and would need to add five million more to bridge the gap with the US, the survey by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CINIC) said.
The year 2007 saw 73 million added to the communist nation's netizen population, 40 per cent of whom lived in rural areas which increased the number of rural Internet users to 52.62 million, 127.7 per cent rise year on year.
The rate was much higher than 38.2 per cent for urban areas, the impressive growth largely attributed to governmental efforts to extend telephone links to villages and Internet services to townships.
Chinas internet penetration ratio has increased by 16 per cent, but is still below the world average of 19.1 per cent.
The survey, according to Xinhua news agency, said 181 million netizens, or 86.6 per cent of the total, used the Internet for musical entertainment, while nearly 170 million, or 81.4 per cent, used it for real-time telecommunications.
Among other major uses, 73.6 per cent browsed for news, 72.4 per cent used search engines, and 59.3 per cent played games. E-mail services were utilized by 56.5 per cent of the Internet users.
The CINIC said that last year, the number of users under age 18 and above 30 increased rapidly. At the end of 2007, users aged 18-24 accounted for 31.8 per cent of the total and those aged 25-30 made up 18.1 per cent.
The proportion of netizens aged 31-35 was 12 per cent. Students accounted for 28.8 per cent of the total Internet users, while unmarried people made up 55.1 percent.
Of the total, 57.2 per cent were male and 42.8 per cent were female. Beijing boasted highest Internet penetration ratio at 46.6 per cent and slightly higher than the 45.8 per cent in Shanghai, Chinas commercial hub.
In terms of income standards, netizens each with an average monthly income of 1,000-2,000 yuan (139-278 USD) made up 28.7 per cent of the total, while those earning at least 5,000 yuan a month accounted for 5.2 per cent, the survey said.
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