Beijing, July 14 (IANS): The Chinese language has become one of the most widely used on internet, second only to English, an official said.
Liu Ruisheng, vice research fellow at the Institute of Media Research under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that there were only around 22.5 million internet users in China in 2000.
At that time, the number of internet users per 100 Chinese people was even lower than the average in developing countries.
China's internet penetration rate reached over 34 percent in 2010 after 10 years of efforts, 1.5 times the average rate of developing countries.
The gap between China and developed countries in internet penetration has been narrowing year by year, the People's Daily reported.
In addition, the number of mobile phone users in China has reached nearly 900 million.