Shanghai Internet penetration rate ranked the second in China's mainland, next only to Beijing, said a report released Wednesday.

Shanghai's net users increased to 4.32 million last year, a 2 percent increase compared to the previous year. The penetration rate was up to 26.6 percent, second only to Beijing at 28 percent, according to China Internet Network Information Center.

Beijing and Shanghai are the only two cities with over 20 percent of residents use the Internet. The national average was 6.2 percent, said the organization under the Ministry of Information Industry.

In Shanghai male net surfers outnumber female users, who account for only 43.7 percent.

The monthly income level for 22.5 percent of Shanghai's net users is below 500 yuan (US$60.40), the largest category. Thirteen percent of local surfers have no income -- including many students.

Online purchasing still accounts for little of the Net use.

Only 0.4 percent of people get online mainly for buying things, compared to the 47.3 percent of people getting online to obtain information and 34.2 percent for entertainment.

"Although some business-to-customer Websites have large number of registered users, the users rarely buy anything online," said Li Naiqin, deputy secretary-general of the Internet Association of Shanghai.

Among the 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions where the survey was taken, Shandong Province enjoyed the fastest growth in terms of netizen number. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are not included.

It ranked seventh in 2002 while last year it climbed to second place with a total of 6.27 million users -- second only to Guangdong Province, home to 9.5 million Internet users.

"It's out of expectation that Shandong witnessed such a huge increase last year," said Wang Enhai with the center. He didn't speculate on causes of the fast growth.

Attracted by the huge potential in those fast growing markets, Joyo.com, one of China's online entertainment providers, opened delivery centers in Jinan and Qingdao, both cities in Shandong Province, last month.

The three-month-long survey covered "thousands of local people" through phone, e-mail and street interviews, the center said. Its margin of error is less than 3 percent.

(Shanghai Daily April 8, 2004)