China had more than 1.12 billion internet users as of June 2025, according to a report released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) on Monday.
The report also noted that internet penetration in China reached 79.7 percent by June 2025, an increase of 1.1 percentage points compared with December 2024.
According to the report, China has made significant strides in internet development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025). In particular, efforts to make the internet more inclusive have allowed key groups, such as the elderly and rural residents, to share in the benefits of this progress.
As of June 2025, China had 161 million internet users aged 60 and above, and 322 million living in rural areas. Internet penetration among these groups reached 52 percent and 69.2 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the continued development of the internet in China has played a key role in promoting Chinese culture both domestically and internationally, the report said, citing the rising export of Chinese online literature and games, along with the growing synergy between popular web series and related tourist destinations.
For instance, in 2024, the overseas market scale of Chinese online literature exceeded 5 billion yuan (about 700 million U.S. dollars). Reaching more than 200 countries and regions worldwide, Chinese online literature now has more than 350 million overseas readers.
In particular, Japan saw its number of Chinese online literature readers grow by an astounding 180 percent, making it the fastest-growing emerging market in the sector.
Zhang Yijun, first vice chairman of the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association, said that China's online literature has emerged as a new mass cultural art form and promoted the development of a diversified value system within the industry, and that its integration with micro-short dramas opened up new paths for the industry's transformation in 2024.
Apart from online art and literature creations, the report also highlighted China's remarkable progress in generative artificial intelligence (AI) development. It noted that in the first half of 2025, generative AI products saw development on all fronts, from technology to application.
As of March 2025, a total of 346 generative AI services were registered at the Cyberspace Administration of China, the report said.
In terms of application, domestic Chinese AI products have achieved significant breakthroughs, reaching parameter scales in the hundreds of billions and achieving multi-modal capabilities. They have been deeply integrated into scenarios such as office collaboration, education, industrial design and content creation, forming an intelligent application ecosystem covering multiple fields.
