State of the Internet in China
According to the China Internet Network Information Center, China's internet population continued to boom in 2008, ending the year with some 298 million among its ranks. That's up from the 253 million figure that was released mid-year, and is 88 million more than the end-of-year figure from 2007. Much of this growth can be attributed to the rural areas of the country, which saw a 60.8% increase in numbers (compared to a growth rate of "only" 35.6% growth among us city-slickers).
Of the 22.6% of the country that now has access to the Internet, 162 million blog, while 234 million log on to read up on the news.
NetEase also released their annual top 10 Internet "Hot" lists for the year yesterday, and not surprisingly, "Sichuan earthquake", "Olympic Games" and "Naked Picture Scandal" were at the top of the report's "Hot Keywords List". Edison Chen, Gillian Chung and Cecilia Cheung finished atop the list of entertainers, while Yao Ming and Liu Xiang were the year's most popular sports stars.
