China's Internet population passed the half billion mark at the end of 2011 after the country added 28 million new users during the second half of the year, Computer World reports.
At the end of December, the country had 513 million Internet users, according to a report issued by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), a non-profit group with ties to the government. This puts the country's total Internet penetration at 38.3 percent, up 4 percent from a year ago. In contrast, the U.S. has a total Internet penetration of 78.2 percent, according to Internet World Stats.
The number of users accessing the Internet from their mobile phones has also grown, reaching 355 million, or more than the entire population of the U.S. Now 69.3 percent of China's Internet users connect to the Internet via their handsets, up from 66.2 percent a year ago.
