Survey Shows 89 Per Cent Of China's Online Traffic Comes From Mobile Devices

By Niam Seet Wei BEIJING, July 23 (Bernama) -- Mobile users account for 88.9 per cent of online traffic in China, said China Internet Network Information Centre report. The report, released Thursday, said that as of June this year, the number of mobile internet users in China hit 594 million. It said in the first half of the year, 276 million Chinese netizens made payments via mobile devices, an increae of 26.9 per cent from a year earlier. In the same period, it said, the number of Chinese netizens doing shopping via smartphones reached 270 million, up 14.5 per cent year-on-year, while 168 million internet users made their travel bookings through mobile devices, an increase of 25 per cent from a year earlier. The report showed that China recorded a total of 668 million netizens by June this year, an increase of 18.94 million people from end-2014, with the nationwide penetration rate of 48.8 per cent. In the first six months of the year, the number of Chinese internet users who accessed the internet via computers, laptops or tablets accounted for about 68.4 per cent, 42.5 per cent and 33.7 per cent, respectively, it said. Among them, netizens from rural areas rose eight million to 186 million from end-2014. The report said the internet would further enhance the transformation and upgrading of agriculture, modern manufacturing and production services in the country. --BERNAMA