Chinese spend 27 hours online per week: report

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China had 40.74 million more Internet users last year, according to a new report.

That brought the number of netizens to 772 million at the end of 2017, said Beijing News quoting from a report released by the Internet Society of China on Thursday.

Chinese spent an average of 27 hours a week surfing the Internet, about 16 percent of their time, the report said.

China's online penetration rate is 55.8 percent.

Some 753 million users surfed the Internet via their mobile phones last year, 57.34 million more than the previous year.

A total of 398 million Chinese used Internet live streaming service, and the report predicted the figure will top 500 million by 2019. However, the industry saw a slower user growth of 28.4 percent last year, and that's expected to continue to fall to 10.2 percent by 2019.

Social apps have become a necessity for mobile phone users, nearly half of whom use the apps more than three times each day. The top three social media services are WeChat Moments, Qzone and Sina Weibo, with a usage rate of 87.3 percent, 64.4 percent and 40.9 percent respectively.

China's online shopping market was worth 7.18 trillion yuan last year, up 32.2 percent year-on-year, according to the report.

The nation had 531 million online payment users at the end of 2017, 11.9 percent or 56.61 million more than the previous year. Among them, 527 million people used mobile online payments, 12.3 percent or 57.83 million more than the previous year.

By the end of 2017, a total of 435 million Chinese used ride-hailing services, a rise of 19.2 percent compared with a year earlier. Among them, 287 million used ride-hailing services to book taxis, up 27.5 percent from a year earlier, while 236 million people used these services to book private vehicles, up 40.6 percent compared to the end of 2016.

Last year, 253 million Chinese used Internet medical services, up 29.7 percent year-on-year. The report said that over the next few years the compound annual growth rate is expected to reach 55.01 percent. By 2021, the market of China's mobile medical care will be worth 69.74 billion yuan, the report added.

Source(s): China Daily