Some 17.5 million blogs are being published in China, according to a new research by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

China has around 75 million blog readers, about 61 percent of its online population of 123 million, the CNNIC reported.

The actual number of people who have signed up with accounts at blogging services in China is even higher than these figures, reaching almost 34 million by the end of August this year, the CNNIC said.

However, half of these accounts have not yet been put into regular use by their owners. Such "sleeping blogs" are a huge waste of Internet resources, the CNNIC said in a statement.

Of the 17.5 million blogs that are in use, the CNNIC describes 7.7 million as "active." The organization defines active blogs as those which are updated at least once a month.

The number of active blogs in China will most likely exceed 10 million by the end of the year.

Globally, some 175,000 new blogs are being created every day, according to David Sifry, head of popular blog search site Technocrat.

(Shenzhen Daily October 18, 2006)