123 million netizens in China

The number of Internet users in China touched 123 million on June 30 this year, an increase of 19.4 per cent from last year.

The growth rate was one per cent higher than last year, the China Internet Network Information Centre said adding that there were 77 million broadband users in the country.

In 2005, China had 103 million netizens. The number of netizens was up by 12 million during the first half of this year, twice as much as the same period last year, it said.

The number of broadband subscribers totaled 77 million, up from 53 million, nearly two-thirds of the total Internet population.

China is the second largest country in the world in terms of both Internet population and the number of broadband users, after the United States.

CNNIC said 30 million of the country's 200 million middle and primary school students, or 15.4 per cent, have access to the Internet.

Each netizen spends a record 16.5 hours per week browsing the web. While 15 million people use the Internet for education, 25 million use it for online employment information, it said.