China's major internet enterprises saw a 14.1-percent year-on-year increase in business revenue in the first half of the year, reversing the sharp decline in the first quarter, said the country's industry and information authority.

In the first half of the year, business revenue for these companies reached 590.7 billion yuan (about 84.6 billion U.S. dollars), and the growth rate rose by 12.6 percent compared with the first quarter, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought an adverse impact on the internet industry. In the first quarter of the year, business revenue of major internet companies rose 1.5 percent to 215.3 billion yuan, with the growth rate dropping by 15.8 percentage points year on year.

Profits of internet and related service industries showed positive growth. During the first half of the year, the Internet industry witnessed a total profit of 52.16 billion yuan, increasing 2.8 percent year on year.

Research and development (R&D) investment of the industry also improved rapidly. During the first six months, R&D spending stood at 31.34 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.7 percent.

In terms of different sections, the information service industry saw a rapid improvement in revenue in the first half, with video and audio services securing the most growth.

Meanwhile, internet platform services, online education and e-commerce took the lead among other services during the same period.

(Cover via VCG)