Six facts about China's Internet development

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the upcoming Second World Internet Conference (WIC) in the river town of Wuzhen in east China's Zhejiang province. 

Xi is expected to deliver a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the conference, which is scheduled to be held between Dec. 16 and 18.

Conference participants include eight foreign leaders and more than 2,000 attendees from over 120 countries and regions.

The conference will cover 22 topics, including Internet cultural transmission, Internet innovation and development, digital economy cooperation, Internet technology standards and cyber space management.

Ten sub-forums will be held during the conference on topics such as the "Internet +" strategy, digital China and Internet innovation.

Here are six facts about China's Internet development:

1. The number of Chinese Internet users has reached 668 million, more than the total population of the E.U.

The number of Internet users in China, which is still growing, ranked first in the world as early as 2008. As of June 2015, Chinese Internet users reached 668 million, more than the population of the entire European Union.

2 "Double 11" online shopping transactions amounted to 91.2 billion yuan, far exceeding those of "Black Friday" in the U.S.

E-commerce has changed the lives of the vast majority of Chinese people. Therefore, it is unsurprising that online shopping breaks records year after year. This year, Tmall's trading volume hit 91.2 billion yuan on the Nov. 11 Chinese shopping holiday, while on Black Friday, online purchases only brought about 17.4 billion yuan in sales, 19 percent of Tmall's trading volume.

3. Internet economy accounted for 7 percent of the GDP, over a quarter of China's stock market by total market value

The Internet industry has made big contributions to China's overall economy. During the 12th Five Year Plan period, the Internet economy continues to rise in its proportion of China's GDP, reaching 7 percent in 2014 — higher than that in the United States. The sum of market value of Internet companies has more than a quarter of China's total stock market.