China is making a huge shift to mobile (INFOGRAPHIC)

Growth is slowing on China’s internet as the mature market approaches its saturation point, but there’s still plenty of huge numbers to gawk at. So let’s leap into this infographic compendium of China web statistics released today by We Are Social.

First, some basics. China now has 668 million active internet users, which is up six percent over the past 12 months, according to the latest government data from CNNIC. In closely matched numbers, the nation has 659 million active social media users and 675 million unique mobile users (out of 1.3 billion SIM subscriptions).

Room for growth

While the country already has some instances of shifting to mobile-first, such as Baidu’s predominantly mobile web searches and Alibaba shoppers mostly spending from their smartphones, the number of mobile internet users is still a bit behind the total number:

So there’s room for growth in mobile web usage, and the same is true of general internet usage in China’s rural areas. Out in the countryside, the rate of web penetration stands at 30 percent compared to 64 percent in urban areas.

One area that’s not growing is tablets. Just as global shipments of tablets are falling, the latest data out of China shows tablet usage is tumbling – down 22 percent year-on-year in terms of the share of page views.

Shopping spree

Slideshow