Number of Web users in China exceeds U.S. population

The number of Web users in China, reached an all-time high 338 million people for the first six months of 2009, has exceeded the U.S. population, said on Sunday the Chinese News Agency Xinhua, citing the Department of Industry and Information Technology of China.

About 95 % of towns and settlements have a high-speed access to the information, and people of 92,5 % of Chinese villages have dial-up access.

The number of broadband access users has increased by 10 million for the first half year – to 93,5 million people.

According to the Department data, most of Chinese look for news online, participate in social networks and entertainments. Particularly, online purchases have become very popular for the first six months of 2009.

According to the agency, the next step in developing of communication-information sector of China will be development of a large market of rural areas. Thus, three telecommunication giants of China – China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom plan to invest as much as 280 billion yuans ($40,9 billion) in improving the work of 3G system.