The majority of Internet users in China's rural areas are young men without higher education, according to a latest report.

The number of Internet users in Chinese rural areas has reached 37.4 million by the end of this June, of which 62 percent are male, said a report released on Friday by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China's top Internet research and administrative body.

It was the first time CNNIC singled out web users in the countryside in its report.

Compared with the rural users, 52.7 percent of urban web users are male.

Young people, under the age of 30, account for 84 percent of the total rural users, while the ratio stands at 66 percent in cities, the report said.

The number of teenage users totaled 15.75 million in the countryside by June, doubling the number at the end of last year.

And 85 percent of the rural users have not gone to high school, compared with 47 percent in cities.

When it comes to the behaviors on line, there are no big difference between rural and urban web users in entertaining themselves -- playing games, downloading music and movies.

But rural users show less interests in reading news, searching information and shopping on line, the report said.

"The Internet service market in rural areas is of huge potential though the gap between cities and villages remains big," the report said.

Only 5 percent of Chinese rural population gets on line, one fourth of the urban ratio.

The CNNIC suggested that the administration, IT companies and Internet service providers join hands in developing the rural market.

(Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2007)