Over Half a Billion Chinese Made Mobile Payments in 2017

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A new report points to ongoing growth in both the number of China’s internet users and the size of the country’s mobile payments market.

The “China Internet Development Report 2018” (中国互联网发展报告2018) released by the Internet Society of China indicates that as of the end of 2017 the country was host to 772 million internet users, for an increase of 40.74 million compared to 2016, and an internet penetration rate of 55.8%.

The report indicates China’s online shopping market saw YoY growth of 32.2% to reach 7.18 trillion yuan.

As of the  end of 2017 the total number of Chinese online payments users was 531 million, for an increase of 56.61 million compared to the end of 2016, or YoY growth of 11.9%.

The number of mobile payments users saw surging growth last year to reach 527 million, for an increase of 57.83 million compared to 2016, or YoY growth of 12.3%.

According to the report rapid growth in the number of mobile internet users has driven a rise in China’s internet penetration rate, with the total rising to 753 million by the end of 2017.

As of the end of 2017 China had a total of 349 million fixed broadband users, with 70% of users enjoying connection speeds of at least 50Mbps, and 38.9% enjoying speeds of at least 100Mpbs, which is 2.2 times the figure for 2016.

The rapid spread of China’s fibre optic cable network has reached a total of 294 million internet users, or 84.3% the number of fixed broadband users.