China had 829 million internet users in 2018, with an internet penetration rate of 59.6%, according to a report released by the China Internet Network Information Centre on Monday.
The number of China's online users hit 829 million by the end of last year, up 7.3 percent from the previous year, according to a report on China's internet development.
The report also indicates that China saw faster network access last year, with more than 70 percent of the country's fixed broadband internet subscribers enjoying an access rate of above 100M.
The report says over one hundred departments and regions have benefited from e-government services, with Beijing, Guangdong Province and Jiangsu Province leading the race in information development.
Statistics in another report also show Shanghai, Hangzhou and Beijing top China's mobile payment list, with people across China spending 31.3 trillion yuan via mobile payments. This accounts for 34.8% of China's overall GDP in 2018.
The country's internet availability rate was raised by 3.8 percentage points year on year to 59.6 percent, said the 43rd statistical report from the China Internet Network Information Center.
More than a quarter of the internet users are students, followed by the self-employed or freelance workers, said the report.
A total of 817 million Chinese used mobile phones to surf the internet, accounting for 98.6 percent of the total netizens, it read.
Some 222 million, or 26.7 percent of the online population, live in rural areas, up 6.2 percent from a year earlier, it said.
