Sunway Taihu Light is a supercomputer independently developed by China. (File photo)

China has invested a total of 1.2 trillion yuan ($182 billion) in improving and constructing fiber-optic and 4G networks from 2015 to 2017, said Miao Wei, the country’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology recently.“As an important infrastructure, information communication network lays a foundation to build China’s strength in cyberspace,” the minister said.

By the end of 2016, China has built the world’s largest 4G network, with an almost full coverage of fiber-optic network in each city. China has seen 930 million 4G users by the end of this August, which accounted for 67.2% of its total mobile phone users, he wrote in a published arti-cle.

The improved infrastructure has bred an accelerated rise of Internet economy. Data showed that the downloads of more than 8 million mobile applications nationwide have exceeded 1.5 trillion, making China a global leader.

The industrial chain of Internet of Things has been updated as well. China is currently the world’s largest machine-to-machine (M2M) market, with more than 100 million terminals deployed.

In 2016, transaction of Chinese e-commerce business exceeded 26.1 trillion yuan ($4 trillion), accounting for 39.2% of the online retail sales worldwide.

The intensified pace to promote the Internet, telecommunications and broadcasting networks connection also brought China a flourishing development of integrated business.

By May 2017, the number of IPTV users in China has surpassed 100 million, and transaction of mobile payment has exceeded 81 trillion yuan ($12.3 trillion), topping the world as well.

In addition, the country’s shared economy has experienced explosive growth, with 25 million online car-hailing orders made each day and over 100 million users of bike-sharing service.