BEIJING -- The number of people surfing the Internet in China rose to 485 million by the end of June this year, up 6.1 percent from the end of last year, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) announced Tuesday.

The increase of 27.7 million over the six-month period was smaller than the increase of 36 million during the same period last year, the CNNIC said.

The number of microblog users surged by 208.9 percent to reach 195 million by the end of June, it said.

About 65.5 percent of China's Internet users, or 318 million people, use mobile phones to surf the net, an increase of 14.94 million from the end of last year, it said.