97 percent of Chinese netizens use mobile Internet: report

An industry report says that 753 million Chinese netizens accessed the Internet using their mobile phones in 2017, accounting for 97.5 percent of China's online population, the Beijing News reports.

[File photo: VCG]

The number of Chinese netizens reached 772 million at the end of last year, up 5.6 percent year-on-year, according to a report on China's Internet development released Wednesday from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

As mobile phones become the most widely used device for accessing the Internet in China, fewer people use desktops, laptops, or tablet computers to get online, said the report.

The number of mobile payment users in China has been steadily increasing. Mobile payments are now used by 68.3 percent of the online population for purchases ranging from personal shopping, public transportation, and medical services, according to Wang Tao, an analyst with the CNNIC.

Bike-sharing apps were the fastest-growing category of Internet app in the second half of 2017. Bike-sharing users accounted for 28.6 percent of China's online population at the end of 2017, increasing by 108.1 percent in the second half of the year alone.