The number of people in China with home Internet access is now second only to the United States and the mainland audience will become the largest in the world within four years, according to analysts with ACNielsen.
Data released yesterday shows 56.6 million people in China could access the Web from home in the first quarter of this year, overtaking Japan as the largest group in Asia. Only the US, where there were 166 million users, was ranked higher.
One in every 10 of the 531 million people who can now use the Internet at home live in China. That ratio is expected to increase as more Chinese go online and the audience growth in Western countries levels off.
'This is a very exciting figure. A lot of people did not expect it to be this high,' said Hugh Bloch, managing director in North Asia for ACNielsen eRatings.com.
He said the numbers were significant because only five per cent of China's households were connected to the Internet, the second lowest rate among 30 countries surveyed. Only India, with three per cent, was lower. Connection rates are about 60 per cent in economies such as the US, Singapore or Hong Kong.
The Ministry of Information says new mainland Internet subscriptions are growing about five per cent a month. At this rate, ACNielsen estimates 25 per cent of the mainland population over the age of two - 257 million people - will have home access in three to four years.