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China: World's 2nd most wired nation
More than 87 million Chinese were "netizens" by July as China celebrated 10 years of being linked by the Internet to the outside world.
The Internet community in China has already multiplied 140 times in more than six years, soaring to its current level from just 620,000 users in 1997, according to the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC)'s latest report.
The number was at 79.5 million by the end of last year.
China's web savvy population surpassed Japan's by the end of 2002, becoming the second largest in the world after the United States.
Although large in size, the current number represents just 6.6 per cent of the country's total population, leaving room for vast growth.
The figures were released by the government-funded CNNIC in its 14th semiannual report, which is believed to be the most authoritative data on the Chinese Internet industry.
The report, made public Tuesday, shows that 36.3 million computers are connected to the Internet, up 17.5 per cent from half a year ago. There are almost 626,000 websites, up 32.2 per cent compared with the same period last year.
But the report said the digital gulf remains as about 90 per cent of the websites are in the more developed provinces.
Beijing, South China's Guangdong Province, East China's Zhejiang Province and Shanghai are the top four for the number of websites, accounting for 56.8 per cent of the total.
In western China, however, many people face cyber difficulties.
MM
IMO that is a gross underestimate of the increase of Chinese purchasing power. I would agree that the % of those with purchasing power is nowhere near that of the EU/US, but the sheer numbers could be there far faster than 20 years.
