Number of Chinese Internet Users Surpasses 800 Million
New data released by the Chinese government has revealed that the number of internet users in the country has risen to over 800 million.
The China Internet Network Information Center estimates that almost 30 million people accessed the internet for the first time in the second half of 2018. This puts the total number of people online at approximately 802 million, which equates to 57.7% of the Chinese population.
Bloomberg points out that this is more than the combined total population of the USA, Russia, Japan and Mexico.
China is notorious for its government’s strict censorship over what information is available online. With the growing number of internet users, the state may need to work harder to maintain control.
TechCrunch reports that: “last year [the government] removed more than 50 VPN apps, which can be used to circumvent China’s internet censorship system, because they are deemed to be illegal.”
Momo, one of China’s leading dating apps, recently released its Q2 financial report for 2018. It announced that net revenue had increased by 58% compared to last year, up to $494.3 million.
Read more here.