Quite stupendous but figures show that the number of Internet users in China is nearly equal to the population of the United States – somewhere in the area of 298 million. The figure is not really astounding if one sees it within the general scheme of things: the Chinese internet users total means that only 23 percent of Chinese use the Web. In the US, 73 percent of the entire population use the Internet. Worldwide, 22 percent of all peoples on earth go online.

Use of the Internet is one of the hallmarks of a free world that is, perhaps, why the China Internet Network Information Center is surprised that 88 million people went online in China last year, with 90 percent of them using broadband connection. This translates to a 42 percent increase from the country’s Internet usage in 2007.

The figure may seem amazing if one considers that there is such a thing as Internet police in China. The country’s government is known to regularly block web sites, even jail bloggers and writers. Internet use is restricted in the country. Nonetheless, China has already topped the US as the biggest user of the Internet. Online, China has become a ‘superpower.’ The field of e-commerce is expected to flourish even more in China.

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Via Information Week