China has 904 million internet users as of March this year, according to a new report on China’s internet development, as cited by Xinhua.
The number of internet users, commonly referred to as netizens, is up 75 million from the end of 2018, and now accounts for nearly 20% of internet users around the globe. According to internetworldstats.com, China has more netizens than Africa and North America combined.
READ MORE: Chinese People Spend Almost 2 Days a Week on Their Mobile Phones
The report also notes that China’s internet penetration is up to 64.5%, almost a 10% increase since the end of 2017. (Internet penetration refers to the portion of a population that can access the internet.) China’s penetration rate still lags behind Europe (87.2%) and North America (94.6%).
A major reason for the country’s steady increase in internet penetration is in part due to the high accessibility of smartphones – 99.3% of people who access the internet in China use their mobile phone.
With Chinese mobile phone vendors like Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo offering affordable phone models, folks in China’s rural regions have greater access to smartphones. In 2018, a study showed that 92.9% of families living in the countryside own mobile phones.
[Cover image via Katherine Gu/Unsplash]
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