China’s Internet users exceed 500 million

Beijing (CNS) – The number of Internet users in China reached 513 million by the end of 2011, according to a report released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) on Monday.

The number of websites increased to 2.29 million, a 20 percent rise. Internet penetration rose to 38.3 percent in 2011, up 4 percent over 2010, according to the report, while the number of Internet users through mobile phones reached 356 million, a 17.5 percent increase compared to 2010.

The report revealed that Chinese websites revived after a one-year decline before the second half of 2011, but that the number of websites registered with the domain name ".cn" went up to 353 million by the end of the year, an increase of more than 26,000.

The most eye-catching change was in the group-buying websites, which soared to 64.65 million in 2011, up by 244.8 percent, a number that fell sharply in the second half of 2011.