For the first time, more than half of China’s population is online

Newest data from government’s internet center shows that mobile web users now make up 90 percent of China’s netizens. Photo credit: kk9k.

China now has 688 million internet users, a record figure. The new data for 2015 from the state’s China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) shows that’s not the only major milestone.

For the first time ever, China has more than half of its population online – 50.3 percent of them.

Mobile web access accounted for a record high proportion of total netizens. The country’s 620 million mobile internet users in 2015 mean that 90.1 percent of all web users access it from their phones (when they’re not logging on from other devices like laptops and desktops).

The chart shows that China’s internet users have nearly doubled in number since 2009. The number of people accessing the web from their phones has grown faster with the nation’s smartphone boom, more than doubling since 2010.

As huge as the numbers are, there’s still room for growth. With an estimated 73 percent of China’s 1.355 billion population aged 15 to 64, the country may eventually have about one billion netizens.