(Yicai Global) March 3 -- The number of internet users in China totaled about 1.07 billion as of the end of last year, a nearly 76 percent penetration rate.

The ranks of the nation’s netizens rose 3.4 percent in the 12 months ended Dec.31, according to a report by the China Internet Network Information Center released yesterday.

Domain names tallied 34.4 million, and there were some 728 million active users with version 6, the most recent iteration, of the Internet Protocol, with addresses surging 6.8 percent from the year before, the report showed.

China had a total of 2.3 million fifth-generation mobile network base stations at the close of 2022, accounting for 21 percent of the country's total, compared with 14 percent the year before.

National standards for the industrial internet's overall network architecture were officially published last year, and the number of influential industrial internet platforms reached 240, with over 4,000 projects in '5G plus the industrial internet,' according to the report. 

Spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic, the market for online telecommuting also grew quickly, with the figure surging 71 percent to 540 million people in December from a year ago. Users of online healthcare services rose by a record 64.7 million to 363 million.

In rural areas, 31.8 percent of netizens used the internet for online education, while 21.5 percent accessed it for healthcare, up from 29.1 percent and 17.4 percent, respectively, in 2021.

Editors: Shi Yi, Martin Kadiev