THE number of China’s online users hit 802 million at the end of June, up 3.8 percent from six months ago, according to a report on China’s Internet development released yesterday.

A total of 788 million Chinese used mobile phones to surf the Internet, making up 98.3 percent of the online population, said the 42nd statistical report from the China Internet Network Information Center.

At the same time, China’s Internet availability rate reached 57.7 percent, with 26.3 percent of the total Internet population living in rural areas.

China’s international Internet gateway bandwidth also expanded to 8,826,302 Mbps, up 20.6 percent from the end of 2017, said the CNNIC.

Also, the number of people using Internet apps in China increased during the first half of 2018, according to the report.

Online financial service users increased by 39.74 million as of June 2018, up 30.9 percent from the end of 2017, said the report, the 42nd of a bi-annual series released by the center.

(Xinhua)