Internet in the People's Republic of China

China has been on the Internet intermittently since May 1989 and on a permanent basis since 20 April 1994. In 2008 China became the largest population on the Internet. As of 2016, approximately 50 percent of China's population had internet connectivity.

China's first foray into global cyberspace was an email (not TCP/IP based and thus technically not Internet) sent on 20 September 1987. It said "Across the Great Wall, we can reach every corner in the world" (simplified Chinese: 越过长城，走向世界; traditional Chinese: 越過長城，走向世界; pinyin: Yuèguò Chángchéng, Zǒuxiàng Shìjiè).

China had 618 million Internet users by the end of December 2013, a 9.5 percent increase over the year before and a penetration rate of 45.8%. By June 2014, there were 632 million internet users in the country and a penetration rate of 46.9%. The number of users using mobile devices to access the Internet overtook those using PCs (83.4% and 80.9%, respectively). China replaced the U.S. in its global leadership in terms of installed telecommunication bandwidth in 2011. By 2014, China hosts more than twice as much national bandwidth potential than the U.S., the historical leader in terms of installed telecommunication bandwidth (China: 29% versus US:13% of the global total).

A majority of broadband subscribers are DSL, mostly from China Telecom and China Netcom. The price varies in different provinces, usually around US$5 – $20/month for a 4M - 100M ADSL/Fiber.(price varies by geographic region)

As of June 2011, Chinese Internet users spent an average of 18.7 hours online per week, which would result in a total of about 472 billion hours in 2011.

Broadband makes up the majority of Internet connections in China, with 363.81 million users at this service tier. The price of a broadband connection places it well within the reach of the mainland Chinese middle class. Wireless, especially Internet access through a mobile phone, has developed rapidly. 500 million are accessing the Internet via cell phones. The number of dial-up users peaked in 2004 and since then has decreased sharply. Generally statistics on the number of mobile internet users in China show a significant slump in the growth rate between 2008 and 2010, with a small peak in the next two years.

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