LONDON: China's Internet population increased by almost one-third during 2006, reinforcing the country's position as one of the most powerful Internet economies in the world.

The total number of people using the Internet in China has risen to 132 million, according to the state news agency Xinhua. The number of people accessing the web on high-speed broadband connections also rose rapidly to 52 million. Such figures indicate 30 per cent growth in the number of web users in just 12 months in the nation of more than 1.3 billion people.

China has the second-largest population of net users in the world after the U.S., which has 207 million citizens online. The growth has been driven by the country's booming economy, as well as the huge number of Internet cafes that have made the web popular among ordinary Chinese people.

While online growth in the West is beginning to tail off, the speed of development in countries such as China and India is increasing.

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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