China online earnings reach €7.6 billion in 2009

Chinese firms earned nearly €7.6 billion from their internet operations last year, a research group said yesterday, as the nation with the world's biggest online population becomes more web-savvy.

Online revenue generated by advertising, games, shopping and other activities rose more than 30 per cent on-year to 74.3 billion yuan, Cao Junbo, a senior researcher at internet consulting group iResearch, said.

The research group expects online revenue to reach 112.3 billion yuan this year and 273.4 billion yuan in 2013, said Mr Cao. China has at least 384 million internet users, more than any other country in the world, according to a new tally released last week by the China Internet Network Information Centre, a government-linked industry body.

By the end of last June, the number of online shoppers in China had reached 87.88 million, meaning roughly one in four internet users shopped online, according to a report by the centre.