As of June, China had 1.079 billion netizens, an increase of 11.09 million over last December, bringing the internet penetration to 76.4 percent, according to a new report released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) on Monday.

Internet apps are flourishing

The 52nd Statistical Report on China's Internet Development showed continuous development of various kinds of internet applications in the first half of 2023, indicating a comprehensive digital life experience for the internet users.

The user size of instant messaging, online video and short video remained the top three as of June, with the number of users reaching 1.047 billion, 1.044 billion and 1.026 billion respectively, and the utilization ratio of 97.1 percent, 96.8 percent and 95.2 percent.

Online car-hailing, travel booking and online literature also saw good momentum of development, becoming the three fastest-growing sectors, said the report.

Compared with December 2022, the user scale of the three sectors respectively increased by 34.92 million, 30.91 million and 35.92 million, with growth rates of 8.0 percent, 7.3 percent and 7.3 percent.

Digital infrastructure construction accelerated

The construction of digital infrastructure was further accelerated, with a total of 30.24 million domain names registered in China by the first half of the year, showed the report.

The number of IPv6 addresses was 68,055 blocks/32, and that of active IPv6 users reached 767 million.

The country's mobile network also saw steady growth.

The total number of mobile phone base stations was 11.29 million, of which nearly three million 5G base stations had been put into use, accounting for 26 percent of the total.

It had facilitated the burgeoning development of relevant applications. The number of active apps in the domestic market rose to 2.6 million, covering people's study, work and daily life.

"The number of users having access to the mobile internet and gigabit optical fiber networks in China continues to grow, with the average online time of netizens increasing, and the download rates of both mobile and fixed broadband speeding up," Wang Changqing, director of the CNNIC's internet development research department, told Xinhua.

It further improved netizens' internet service experience, said Wang.

In terms of the Internet of Things (IoT), China's three basic telecommunications companies developed 2.223 billion cellular IoT terminal users, a net increase of 279 million compared with that in December 2022, continuously consolidating the foundation of the Internet of Everything.