The number of Internet users in China reached 22.5 million in December last year, a report from China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) revealed yesterday.

The number of users grew particularly rapidly in the first half year of 2000, increasing from 8.9 million to 16.9 million.

Many analysts forecast that the number of Internet users will double every six months.

But CNNIC said China's Internet industry is heading for its maturity.
Almost two-thirds of the 22.5 million users still use dial-up services to access the Internet, the report said.

Female users made up 30 percent of all netizens by December 31.
Young people under 24 make up 56 percent of all users.

But the community of Internet users is quickly diversifying to all ages, especially very young children and senior citizens.

The Internet is still a favorite of single people with two-thirds of the netizens unmarried, the report said.

The Internet is most popular in Beijing with more than one-tenth of users living there.

Guangdong Province and Shanghai are also home to a large number of users.

The CNNIC report showed there was a large digital gap in China with most Internet users living in eastern cities.

Western areas like Tibet were left far behind.

The average education level of users was lower compared with six months ago, but people with college degrees still dominate.

About 40 percent of users earn 500-1,500 yuan (US$60-181) per month and only one-fifth of the users have a salary above 1,500 yuan.
This indicates that young people, especially students, remain the major group of Internet users.

According to the report, China's international Internet export bandwidth is 2,799m (million bits per second) while Chinanet, the ISP (Internet service provider) branch of China Telecom, covered almost 70 percent of the total bandwidth.

"It is very imbalanced and hurts the development of other ISPs" said Zhao Xiaofan, deputy director-general of the Information and Technology Promotion Department under the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

He said the government should give preferential policies to minor players and nurture a competitive environment.

The CNNIC is a neutral, non-profit-making organization authorized and led by MII. It releases Internet development reports every six months.

(China Daily 01/18/01)