China’s internet population keeps on growing, now numbers 564 million

China’s web registry regulator, the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), has today released a new tranche of data showing the size of the Chinese internet landscape at the end of 2012. The report reveals that the country now has 564-million internet users, meaning that web penetration is up to 42.1 percent of the populace. It also reveals how many use social media like Weibo.

On the mobile side of things, China now has 420-million mobile web users. That’s not to be confused with the billion-plus total phone subscribers, or the 200-million who have signed up for 3G on their smartphones. CNNIC credits the popularity of e-commerce and social media like Sina Weibo for this area of growth.

Another substantial stat is that, according to CNNIC, China now has 309 million microblog users on the Twitter-like services such as Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo. That means 54.7% of all netizens are active microblog users. Of those, 202-million access one of the many Weibo/Twitter clones on their phones.

Sina Weibo announced that it has 400-million registered users back in November of last year, but it didn’t indicate how many of those are active.

Other interesting statistics include:

• Desktop PC access dropped from 73.4% in 2011 to 70.6 percent in 2012
• Laptop usage dipped slightly, to 45.9%
• Mobile web usage went up from 69.3 to 74.5% from 2011 to 2012
• 20.5 hours is the average amount of time per week spent on the net. That’s up from 18.7 hours in 2011.
• There are 242-million e-commerce shoppers online. Also, daily deals customers amount to 83.21-million.

This article by Steven Millward originally appeared on Tech in Asia, a Burn Media Publishing Partner.