Number of China's internet users hits 989m

The number of internet users in China reached 989 million in December, an increase of 85.4 million from March, according to a report published on Wednesday by the China Internet Network Information Center.

The internet availability rate reached 70.4 percent of the population, an increase of 5.9 percentage points from March, the report said. The number of internet users in rural areas hit 309 million, up 54.71 million on the March figure.

The number of online education and medical users in China was 342 million and 215 million respectively, accounting for 34.6 percent and 21.7 percent of overall internet users.

China's internet industry has also played an important role in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said. The national government service platform launched a "health QR code" which has been used by 900 million people on more than 40 billion occasions.

China has also been the world's largest e-commerce market for eight consecutive years, the report said.

Last year, online retail sales reached 11.76 trillion yuan ($1.82 trillion), an increase of 10.9 percent over 2019. As of December, the number of online shoppers reached 782 million, up 72.15 million from March.

The number of online-payment users reached 854 million in the same month, an increase of 86.36 million from March, while the number of short-video users increased by 100 million to 873 million over the same period.