China Internet Network Information Center said on Monday that by December 2011, the country’s Internet user had reached 513 million, an increase of 12% over last year.

Foreign Media: network users in China are more than 500 million. An industry group said currently the mainland China has more than 500 million Internet users, and the growth momentum remained strong.

China Internet Network Information Center said on Monday that by December 2011, the country’s Internet user had reached 513 million, an increase of 12% over last year.The mainland mobile Internet users increased by 17.5 % to $ 356 million. Another point of growth is the group purchasing industry experienced an increase of 244.8% to 64.7 million by the end of December 2011.

Compared with the previous year, last year’s micro blog users increased by 3 times, nearly half of Internet users use this service platform to obtain information and point of view. Last year is a watershed year for the microblogging to become a broadcaster of major events. in July last year, the high-speed rail accident had triggered heated discussion over the micro blog.

The Chinese government encourages people to use the Internet to do business and acquire education, but tries everything within its power to prevent public access to the politically sensitive or pornographic content. The heated discussion and speedy information transmission on the micro blog has plucked the nerves of the local government. Therefore some of the city introduced micro blogging operator rules, requiring new users with real-name registration.

Agence France-Presse reported on 16 January under the title of Chinese Internet users reached 513 million people. According to the latest data, last year Internet users in China reached nearly 56 million, with the total number exceeding 500 million, of which nearly half use the micro blog. China Internet Network Information Center said the people using more traditional communication tools such as e-mail, forum or blog are declining, which poses a great challenge to China’s effort of internet control. The government now is worrying about the internet’s influence over public opinions and some politically sensitive information are being screened.
 
According to China Internet Network Information Center, the number rural internet users also increased by 8.9% to 136 million. But there still is a huge gap. Last year, more than 70 % people in Beijing used the Internet, while in Guizhou, the poorest Province in China, only 24.2 % people has the access to internet.

The Associated Press reported on January 16 that with hundreds of millions of new users accessing internet via mobile phones and tablet PCs, Internet users in China gave rise to a profitable explosive growth of internet companies, which has brought heaps of fortune to many Chinese entrepreneurs.