The number of Internet surfers in China increased to an estimated 384 million as of the end of 2009, according to the latest semiannual survey conducted by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

The number of Internet surfers rose 13.6% from six months earlier, and was equivalent to a user density of 28.9%, which was higher than the global average of 25.6%, CNNIC indicated in its report published January 15. Of the Internet surfers, 346 million or 90.1% used broadband fixed-line access modes and 233.4 million or 60.8% used handsets for mobile access. The average time of using the Internet a week per surfer was 18.7 hours.

There were 232.446 million IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, 16.818 million domain names and 3.232 million websites in China at the end of 2009. At the same time, China had total bandwidth of 866.367Gbps for international Internet connection, with China Telecom (with bandwidth of 516.650Gbps) being the largest ISP, followed by China United Telecommunications (298.834Gbps), China Mobile Communications (30.559Gbps), CSTNet (10.322Gbps) and CERNET (10.000Gbps).

Source: CNNIC, compiled by Digitimes, January 2010

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Source: CNNIC, compiled by Digitimes, January 2010

Source: CNNIC, compiled by Digitimes, January 2010

Source: CNNIC, compiled by Digitimes, January 2010