Chinese Internet users spent a record time online in 2006, while young students continue to be the largest group using the Web, said the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) yesterday.

Chinese Internet users spent an average of 16.9 hours online each week, compared with 15.9 hours in 2005 and 8.5 hours in 2001.

Wang Enhai, an official with the CNNIC, which has been tracking the Internet industry since 1997, said the usage time was higher than many mature Internet markets, showing its strong influence on user's lives in China.

Among them, young people between 18 and 24 were the most active users, spending 21.5 hours on the Internet each week.

Declining access costs is one of the reasons the Internet is prospering in China, the report said. Chinese netizens' average spending on Internet access services dropped to 83.5 yuan in 2006, down 19.4 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile broadband is gaining popularity in China. Among China's 13.7 million Web surfers, 10.4 million have broadband access, some 75.9 percent of the total. According to the CNNIC, broadband users have increased over the past year by 41.1 percent, signaling that China has entered the "broadband era".

For Internet users, the World Wide Web is their primary source for information, with 47 percent of people choosing it as the most important way to learn information, while TV and newspapers follow with 30 percent and 16 percent respectively.

As the nation is poised to launch third-generation (3G) mobile services, Chinese netizens are eyeing the potential of their handsets for Internet surfing.

According to the CNNIC, 17 million Chinese mobile phone users now log onto the Internet through their handsets, though 86.4 percent of China's mobile phone users still think it's expensive to use mobile Internet services.

Source:China Daily