Beijing, July 24 (IANS): The number of people using the internet in China has galloped to 668 million - and most use their mobile phones for access - the authorities said.

The number of Internet users in China continued to grow in the first half of this year, with about 90 percent of the users accessing the internet through mobile phones, said the semi-annual report of the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

Global Times cited the report as saying that there were a total of 668 million online users in China by the end of June, an increase of 19 million in the past six months.

Among the users, 27.9 percent or 186 million are rural residents, an increase of 8 million. Most of the online users are aged between 20 and 29 and are mainly students and freelancers.

The report said that about 90 percent of the users access the Internet through mobile phones, 68 percent access through desktops and about 43 percent use laptops.

The popularity of smartphones has gone up due to a fall in prices, making them more affordable, said the report which added that the growth of apps useful in daily lives also contributed to attract online users.

The report also said that following a boom in the stock market, the number of people using mobile apps to trade shares rose by 50 percent in the first half of this year to 5.6 million.