The 55th Statistical Report on China’s Internet Development
China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC)
January 2025
Preface
Since 1997, the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) has carried out the Statistical Survey on the Internet Development in China and regularly released the Statistical Report on China’s Internet Development (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”) at the beginning and middle of each year. Ever since then, CNNIC has published 54 reports. These Reports have reflected the process of building up China’s strength in cyberspace through statistical data. They have provided an important reference for Chinese government departments, domestic and international institutions in the industry, experts, scholars, and the general public to understand the development of China’s Internet.
The year 2024 marked the 30th anniversary of China’s full connection to the Internet and its efforts to facilitate the deep integration of the real economy and digital economy. China’s Internet sector has made more advances in the netizen size and Internet applications. The Internet has given full play to the driving role of network infrastructure, data connection and technology, promoting the deep integration of real economic activities, such as agriculture, industry, transport and communications, commercial services and the cultural industry, with digital technologies and digital forms.
As the Internet has contributed to the transformation and upgrading of real economy, the economy has been steadily recovering and turning for the better. China has completed the tasks and objectives of the 14th Five-Year Plan with high quality, laying a solid foundation for a good start to the 15th Five-Year Plan.
CNNIC, a national team of basic Internet resources, has continued to strengthen its industry research capability, followed up on China’s Internet development for many years, gained insights into industry trends, and supported scientific decision-making. These Reports focus on the four aspects, including basic Internet resources, size of Internet users, Internet applications and e-government. From a multi-pronged perspective, CNNIC has worked to comprehensively demonstrate the development of China’s Internet in 2024 through all-round data.
Here, we hereby express our heartfelt thanks to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, and other departments for their guidance for the Reports. We would also like to express our sincere thanks to other institutions and Internet users that have supported this statistical survey.
Core Data
By December 2024, China had 1,108 million Internet users, an increase of 16.08 million compared to December 2023. The Internet penetration reached 78.6%, up by 1.1 percentage points over December 2023.
As of December 2024, the number of mobile Internet users in China reached 1,105 million, representing an increase of 14.03 million from December 2023. Of all the netizens, those accessing the Internet via mobile phone made up 99.7%.
By December 2024, the number of rural Internet users in China had amounted to 313 million, accounting for 28.2% of the total netizens. That of urban Internet users had reached 795 million, representing 71.8% of the total.
Up to December 2024, the proportions of users accessing the Internet via desktop computers, laptops, tablets and televisions were 36.2%, 32.0%, 30.8% and 25.1%, respectively; those of users accessing the Internet via personal wearable devices, smart home devices and smart connected vehicles were 23.8%, 22.6%, and 10.7%, respectively.
As of December 2024, the number of IPv6 addresses in China had reached 69,148 blocks/32, an increase of 1.6% from December 2023.
Up to December 2024, China had 33.02 million domain names, of which those with .CN were 20.82 million.
By December 2024, China had 1,101 million social network users, who accounted for 99.3% of all netizens.
As of December 2024, China had 1,081 million users of instant messaging, an increment of 21.7 million from December 2023, taking up 97.6% of all netizens.
Up to December 2024, the number of online video1 users in China had reached 1,070 million, an increase of 3.47 million from December 2023, accounting for 96.6% of all netizens. Among them, the number of short video users had reached 1,040 million, making up 93.8% of all Internet users, while the number of micro-drama users had reached 662 million, accounting for 59.7% of the total.
As of December 2024, the number of online payment users was 1,029 million, an increase of 75.05 million from December 2023, representing 92.8% of all netizens.
By December 2024, China had 1,004 million users of e-government, an increment of 31.40 million from December 2023, taking up 90.6% of all netizens.
Up to December 2024, the number of online shopping users reached 974 million, an increase of 59.47 million from December 2023, accounting for 87.9% of all netizens.
As of December 2024, the number of search engine users reached 878 million, an increment of 51.12 million from December 2023, making up 79.2% of all netizens.
By December 2024, the number of live streaming users was 833 million, an increase of 17.37 million over December 2023, representing 75.2% of all netizens.
Up to December 2024, the number of online news users was 811 million, an increase of 39.09 million from December 2023, accounting for 73.2% of all netizens.
As of December 2024, the number of online music users was 748 million, an increase of 33.31 million from December 2023, representing 67.5% of all netizens.
By December 2024, the number of online meal ordering users was 592 million, an increase of 47.77 million from December 2023, accounting for 53.4% of all netizens.
Up to December 2024, the number of online literature users was 575 million, an increase of 54.74 million from December 2023, making up 51.9% of all netizens.
As of December 2024, China had 570 million users of online office, an increment of 33.42 million from December 2023, taking up 51.5% of all netizens.
By December 2024, China had 548 million online travel booking users, an increase of 39.35 million from December 2023, representing 49.5% of all netizens.
Up to December 2024, the number of car-hailing users was 539 million, an increase of 11.80 million from December 2023, making up 48.7% of all netizens.
As of December 2024, China had 418 million users of Internet healthcare, an increment of 3.72 million from December 2023, taking up 37.7% of all netizens.
Up to December 2024, China had 249 million users of generative artificial intelligence (Generative AI), accounting for 17.7% of the Chinese population.
1 The size of online video users included micro-drama users by December 2024.
Chapter I - Development and Application of Basic Internet Resources
Basic Internet resources have laid the essential foundation for the prosperous digital economy, serving as a key powerhouse for high-quality socio-economic development. In 2024, China’s basic Internet resources developed, 5G and gigabit fibre broadband advanced orderly, the access traffic of mobile Internet grew at a faster pace, and the high-quality development of information and communication yielded remarkable results.
I. Development of Basic Internet Resources
As of December 2024, the number of IPv4 addresses in China was 392.39 million, that of IPv6 addresses was 69,148 blocks/32, and that of active IPv6 users reached 822 million2. The total number of domain names was 33.02 million3, of which 20.82 million ended with .CN. The number of Internet broadband access ports reached 1,199 million4.
Table 1 Development of Basic Internet Resources by December 2024
| Type | Unit | Number by December 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| IPv4 | 1 | 392,386,560 |
| IPv6 | Block/32 | 69,148 |
| Active IPv6 user5 | 100 million | 8.22 |
| Domain name | 1 | 33,019,905 |
| Including .CN domain name | 1 | 20,823,037 |
| Internet broadband access port6 | 100 million | 11.99 |
2 The number of active IPv6 users was updated by November 2024.
3 Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) and New Generic Top-Level Domains (New gTLD) data are provided by China’s domain name registration organisations.CN and .中国 data refer to global registration volume.
4 The number of Internet broadband access ports was updated by November 2024.
5 The number of active IPv6 users was updated by November 2024.
6 The number of Internet broadband access ports was updated by November 2024.
IP Addresses
Up to December 2024, the number of IPv6 addresses had amounted to 69,148 blocks/32, up by 1.6% over December 2023. By collecting and analyzing data from 23 major public recursive services worldwide, 14 or 60.9% of them offered IPv6 public recursive services.
Figure 1 Number of IPv6 Addresses7
Unit: blocks/32.
Source: Statistical Survey on China’s Internet Development, CNNIC, December 2024.
As of December 2024, the number of active IPv6 users reached 822 million.
Figure 2 Number of Active IPv6 Users
Unit: 100 million users.
Source: National IPv6 Development and Monitoring Platform, November 2024.
Up to December 2024, the number of IPv4 addresses in China had amounted to 392.39 million.
Figure 3 Number of IPv4 Addresses8
Unit: 10,000 addresses.
Source: Statistical Survey on China’s Internet Development, CNNIC, December 2024.
7 The data cover Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
8 The data cover Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
Domain Names
Up to December 2024, the number of China’s domain names totaled 33.02 million. Specifically, there were 20.82 million ended with .CN, 7.05 million ended with .COM, 170,000 ended with .中国, and 3.64 million New gTLD names.
Table 2 Number of Domain Names by Category
| Type | Number |
|---|---|
| .CN | 20,823,037 |
| .COM | 7,047,974 |
| .NET | 590,181 |
| .中国 | 165,265 |
| .INFO | 48,497 |
| .ORG | 23,118 |
| New gTLD | 3,640,877 |
| Others9 | 680,956 |
| Total | 33,019,905 |
9 Including .BIZ, .CO, .TV, .CC, .ME, .HK, .PW, etc.
Table 3 Number of .CN Domain Names by Category
| Type | Number |
|---|---|
| .CN10 | 12,417,282 |
| .COM.CN | 3,878,437 |
| .ADM.CN11 | 2,406,924 |
| .NET.CN | 1,089,050 |
| .ORG.CN | 959,219 |
| .AC.CN | 52,427 |
| .GOV.CN | 12,608 |
| .EDU.CN | 6,857 |
| Others | 233 |
| Total | 20,823,037 |
10 .CN here refers to the second-level domain names under the category of .CN.
11 .ADM.CN refers to virtual secondary domain names and is the collective name for all administrative domain names (second-level domain names) under .CN.
Number of 5G Base Stations
As of November 2024, the number of 5G base stations totaled 4.191 million, accounting for 33.2% of all mobile base stations, up by 4.1 percentage points from December 2023.
Figure 4 Number of 5G Base Stations
Unit: 10,000 base stations.
Source: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, November 2024.
Number of Internet Broadband Access Ports
As of November 2024, the number of Internet broadband access ports nationwide reached 1,199 million, a net increase of 63.60 million from December 2023. Specifically, the number of FTTH/O ports reached 1.16 billion, a net increase of 63.49 million over December 2023 and the proportion amounted to 96.5% of Internet broadband access ports. The number of 10G PON ports with gigabit network service capability reached 27.92 million, a net increase of 4.896 million over December 2023.
Figure 5 Number of Internet Broadband Access Ports
Unit: 100 million ports.
Source: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, November 2024.
Total Length of Fiber Optic Cable Lines
As of September 2024, the total length of fiber optic cable lines totaled 71.83 million km, a net increase of 7.514 million km from December 2023.
Figure 6 Total Length of Fiber Optic Cable Lines
Unit: 10,000 km.
Source: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, September 2024.
II. Application of Basic Internet Resources
Websites
As of December 2024, there were 4.46 million websites in China.
Figure 7 Number of Websites
Unit: 10,000 websites.
Source: The ICP / IP address / domain name record management system of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, December 2024.
Web Pages
As of December 2024, there were 399.4 billion web pages in China, up by 4.5% from December 2023. There were 275.3 billion static web pages12 and 124.0 billion dynamic web pages13, accounting for 68.9% and 31.1% of the total, respectively.
Figure 8 Number of Web Pages
Unit: 100 million pages.
Source: Baidu, December 2024.
Table 4 Number of Web Pages from Dec. 2023 to Dec. 2024
| Type | Unit | December 2024 | Percentage Increase from December 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total web pages | Page | 399,364,628,784 | 4.5 |
| Static web pages | Page | 275,321,724,899 | 5.2 |
| Proportion in total web pages | % | 68.9 | -- |
| Dynamic web pages | Page | 124,042,903,885 | 3.2 |
| Proportion in total web pages | % | 31.1 | -- |
| Web page size (total number of bytes) | KB | 34,822,667,008,589 | 7.7 |
| Average number of bytes per page | KB | 87 | 3.0 |
Source: Baidu.
12 A static web page means a web page in the standard HTML format, whose extension is either .htm or .html, and which contains text, images, audio, flash files, client scripts, ActiveX controls and JAVA programs.
13 A dynamic web page means a web page that displays different content with the time, environment or result of database operation, although its code is the same as that used for a static page. This is achieved by a combination of basic HTML language specification with advanced programming languages such as Java, VB and VC, database programming and other techniques.
Mobile Internet Access Traffic
By November 2024, China’s mobile Internet traffic14 totaled 306.6 billion GB, up by 12% year-on-year.
Figure 9 Mobile Internet Access Traffic
Unit: 100 million GB.
Source: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, November 2024.
14 Since February 2024, the number of 5G mobile phone users and mobile Internet users as well as the 5G mobile Internet access traffic, provided by China Radio and Television Network Group Co., Ltd. (China Broadnet), have been included in the industry data.