China's mobile internet users to double in 5 years

China's mobile Internet users may more than double within five years as smart-phones that can browse the Web and download music become more affordable, said Lee Kai-fu, the former head of Google Inc.'s China division.

The number of people accessing the Internet on their mobile devices in China may grow to 800 million within three to five years, from about 300 million at present, Lee said .

Lee's company is investing in a mobile-software maker and 11 other businesses in the country to benefit from booming demand for Web technology. Lenovo Group Ltd., China's biggest maker of personal computers, expects products aimed at the mobile Internet market may comprise as much as 20 percent of Lenovo's sales in five years, President Rory Read said.

"It's beginning to really take off," Lee, 48, said of the nation's mobile Internet market. "Everyone is starting out, figuring out how things will go. That's exactly the right time when we want to get engaged."

As 83 percent of mobile Internet users in China are aged about 29 years or younger, they don't have a lot of money and are very sensitive to handset prices, Lee said. Smartphones must be priced lower than 2,000 yuan (US$295), or less than half the current cost of more than 4,000 yuan, to be affordable, he said.

The price of a smartphone running Google's Android system is likely to drop to about 1,500 yuan this year and 750 yuan in 2011, making such devices affordable to more people, Lee said.

By People's Daily Onlin/Agencies