中国的互联网服务走向手机

The report by the cnnIC shows some 388 million Chinese were connected to the Internet through mobile phones as of the end of June, compared with 380 million people who connected through their desktops.

The report says as the mobile Internet access grows fast, desktop and laptop Internet access is sliding.

Liu Bing, deputy director of the cnnIC says the rapid growth of mobile Internet users is due to the prices of smartphones becoming affordable, especially to migrant workers and rural residents. Some smartphones even sell for about 1,000 yuan.

"What has been growing fast these years are mobile videos, mobile search engines instant messenger and e-commerce."

According to data from the US market research company Strategy Analytics, China surpassed the United States to become the world's largest smartphone market by volume in the third quarter of 2011.

While global giants like Apple and Samsung Electronics dominate the high-end market, domestic smartphone makers such as Huawei and Xiaomi Technology have eyed middle- or low-end markets with lower-priced products.

The rapid expansion of the mobile Internet population has boosted mobile online payments, which in turn is expected to stimulate the development of mobile e-commerce.

The cnnIC report says about 44 million people used mobile phones to make online payments at the end of June, up 14 million from the end of last year.

In addition, with the rising popularity of Weibo, a Twitter-like service in China, the use of social network websites is falling. Liu explains.

"The development speed of BBS and blogs have started to slow. The reason is certainly the rising popularity of Weibo, which is more suitable for today's fast paced life. Weibo is able to meet the demand of people who previously used blogs."

Liu adds that China's online population exceeded that of the United States to top the world in 2008, with 24 out of every 100 Internet users being Chinese.

Based on the cnnIC report, the country's online population rose 10.9 percent year-on-year to hit 538 million by the end of June, meaning that four out of 10 Chinese are now Internet users.

In the first half of this year, the country's Internet users increased by 25 million. There are 210 million online shoppers, while more than 80 percent of China's Internet users are under 40 and 27 percent were rural dwellers.

For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.