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Fast increasing number of Chinese internet users

China is on track to become the world's largest internet market within the next four years.

From Beijing, China correspondent Tom O'Byrne reports.

According to figures just out from the ratings group Nielsen Net Ratings, China ranks second in the number of home internet users and sits just behind the United States. Currently 56 million people live in internet-connected homes in China, below more than 65 million users in the US. But, an agency official says subscription rates in China are climbing at five to six percent a month. At that rate, 25 percent connectivity in a few years would mean 250-million Chinese online. The increased user numbers come despite widespread internet monitoring by the state of what users see and how they use the medium. Hundreds of sites are blocked and already several Chinese citizens have been detained for posting anti-government reports online.

24/04/2002 17:36:29 | ABC Radio Australia News

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