Internet spreads through rural areas
8 October 2007
[photopress:ITruralchina.jpg,full,alignright]The Internet has been extending fairly rapidly in China's rural areas, with the number of rural net users reaching about 5.1% of the rural population which does not sound like much until you realize that is 37.41 million people. Comparing that with towns the National Development and Reform Commission puts urban netizens at 125 million, or 21.6% of urban population. On the other hand rural access is galloping forward pretty rapidly from 23.1 million at the end of 2006. In six months 14.3 million rural dwellers got access to the Internet. In its 11th Five-Year Program (2006-2010), the Ministry of Information Industry vowed to extend phone service to every village and enable every township to have access to Internet. And it seems to be happening. The main group of rural net users are young farmers and migrant workers, who can use computers to enjoy on-line music, games and videos as skillfully as urban users. Rural net users rarely use the Internet for news, on-line shopping, on-line banking or trading stocks.
Source: China View
