On 23 July 2015 China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) released in Beijing the 36th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China (“the Report” hereinafter).　The Report shows that the population of Chinese netizens had reached 668 million by the end of June 2015, with an Internet penetration rate of 48.8%.　Commercial applications of the mobile Internet developed rapidly, and Internet applications were more oriented toward enhancing user experience and serving the national economy. 

 

At the end of June 2015 China’s Internet penetration rate was 48.8% and its Internet user scale was 668 million, of whom 18.94 million were a new increment in just half a year. From personalized applications based on people’s demands for information acquisition, communication, and entertainment to integrated health, education, transport and other public services, the impact of the Internet on people’s way of life continued to deepen.　Driven by cloud computing, Internet of things and big data applications, the Internet will greatly promote the transformation and upgrading of agriculture, modern manufacturing and the production service industry in the years to come.

 

According to the Report, by the end of June 2015 China’s mobile netizen scale had reached 594 million, an increase of 36.79 million over the end of 2014; among all Internet users, the proportion of those using mobile phones to access the Internet rose from 85.8% to 88.9% in six months; as the screen of mobile phones becomes larger and mobile application experience continues to improve, mobile phones will become a more and more important terminal to access the Internet. 

Statistics show that the rural netizen population in China was 186 million in June 2015, representing a net increase of 8 million over the end of 2014. Currently, the Internet penetration rate is 64.2% in urban areas and 30.1% in rural areas in China, showing a gap of 34.1 percentage points.　Internet penetration rate in rural residents aged 10-40 is 15-27 percentage points lower than that in the same age group in urban areas. But it is easy and highly possible for the rural non-netizens in this age group to transform into netizens. 

 

Along with the rapid expansion of mobile netizen population and due to the convenience and instantaneousness of mobile terminals that better meet netizens' commercial consumption needs, mobile commercial applications have become a new engine driving the growth of network economy. As of the end of June 2015, users of mobile payment, mobile shopping and mobile travel booking were respectively 276 million, 270 million and 168 million, representing a half-year increase of 26.9%, 14.5% and 25.0% respectively. 

Meanwhile, as basic Internet applications, both search engines and online news have achieved a utilization ratio of above 80%, showing a limited space for further increase. However, with new explorations being continuously made in technical integration, product innovation and personalized services, search engines and online news will have significant improvement in application depth and user experience in the next few years.　

 

In the first half of 2015, network financial service applications closely followed the changes in the financial market, leading to a big increase in the user size of online stock trading. By the end of June, users of online stock trading had reached 56.28 million, up 47.4% from the end of 2014.　Due to a relatively easy monetary policy in the first half of the year, earnings of monetary funds were on continuous decline and a large proportion of users were diverted to the stock market, putting the growth of online wealth management applications to a stop. 

 

Statistics show that the user size of network entertainment applications as a whole remained basically stable in the first half of the year. Though there was a slight decline in the user size of online literature, an increase was seen in all other types of online entertainment applications. The utilization ratios of online literature and online music experienced a drop, but a rise was witnessed in online video and online game applications. Entertainment-related applications are generally considered the earliest forms of network applications and after years of development, their user size and utilization ratio have both reached a plateau. In the past six months, the main work done for these applications has been explorations of new business models.