Internet industry helps keep Chinese economy steady

China's booming Internet industry has helped the country counter the global economic crisis in recent years, an industry association official said.

Gao Xinmin, vice-president of the Internet Society of China, said during an industry forum in Beijing on Wednesday that "the industry has become an important way for China to ease the effects of the economic crisis".

Total revenues of the industry are estimated to have been 450 billion yuan ($72.4 billion) last year, an increase of 32 percent from a year earlier, he said.

The number of China's Internet users rose to a record 564 million by December, more than four times Japan's total population in 2011. With the increasingly large Internet population, Internet services such as online shopping, online advertising and online games have become increasingly popular, transforming the huge number of users into revenues.

Chinese listed Internet companies saw their profit margins increase by 33.7 percent, and revenues by 32.8 percent, over the past year. The figures are higher than those of the top 30 Internet companies in the world by market value, which registered a 13.5 percent rise in profits and 27 percent rise in revenues on average, Gao said.

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