Internet economy surges in first 3 quarters
China’s Internet and related sectors posted sound growth in the first nine months of this year, with business revenue maintaining a double-digit increase.
During the period, business revenue of the country’s Internet enterprises rose 19.4 percent year on year to 685.8 billion yuan (US$99 billion), according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
In the first nine months, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong saw their Internet business revenues rise 32.3 percent, 18.2 percent and 17.5 percent year on year respectively — the top three performers in the country.
MIIT data also showed that the sectors’ R&D expenditure reached 37.3 billion yuan, surging 14.7 percent year on year.
Information services were the largest revenue contributor, accounting for more than 90 percent, followed by e-commerce platforms with 252 billion yuan, up 23.7 percent year on year, and online gaming at 145.1 billion yuan, rising 20.6 percent.
By end-September, China had 4.42 million mobile apps, 1.37 million gaming apps, 532,000 daily service apps and 412,000 e-commerce apps.