Chinese Internet users to hit 800m by 2015

BEIJING - China aims to make its Internet services accessible to more people in the coming years and bring its total number of Internet users to 800 million by 2015, according to a national development plan.

The number, which accounts for around 57 percent of the total population, includes 200 million netizens in rural areas, according to an Internet development plan for the 2011-2015 period unveiled Friday by the Ministry of Information and Information Technology (MIIT).

The plan said revenues for the online service industry will grow at an annual rate of 25 percent during the period, helping to provide jobs for 2.3 million people by 2015.

Meanwhile, the transaction value of the country's booming e-commerce businesses is expected to hit 18 trillion yuan in 2015, according to the plan.

The MIIT also announced Friday another development plan for the communications sector.

The plan says that by 2015, China's telecommunication businesses will reap combined revenues of 1.5 trillion yuan, while the total number of 3G subscribers will exceed 450 million.

As of the end of last year, China's online population totalled 513 million. More Chinese have been going online to voice their opinions and participate in public affairs in recent years.