Already among the world's top five, China's Internet population hit 26.5 million at the end of June. The latest official statistics reported the figure was 16.9 million in 2000 and only 8.9 million a year earlier.

The figures were released Tuesday by the government-funded China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) in its latest report, the most authoritative data on the Chinese Internet industry.

Analysts said the rapid expansion indicated Internet has increasingly become a household presence rather than the sole preserve of tech-savvy gurus.

"Cyberspace has become a force to be reckoned with in China," said Qian Hualin, a senior Internet analyst in Beijing.

Netizens between the ages of 18 and 30 remain the driving force, but this age group's share of the whole community dropped steeply from 91 per cent in 1998 to 52.9 percent at the end of June.

This decrease was attributed to the steady growth in numbers of adults 35 and older, the report, released twice a year, said.

Meanwhile, netizens' attitudes towards the Internet are changing as they now exploit the Net not just for news, but for entertainment and business as well.

CNNIC reported 34.4 percent of interviewees used the Internet for leisure, a giant gain from a trivial 7 percent in 1998.

However, only 0.3 percent of the respondents picked online shopping and e-business as their main activity online, another setback for Internet start-up operators.

A global tech stock meltdown last year sent the mania for website start-ups in China into the doldrums.

But Wang Juntao, president of 8848.com, said online shopping has spread from large cities to medium and small towns, and that household net shoppers are increasing.

"More netizens are attracted to the new style of shopping, despite strong reservations on safety, quality and billing," said Wang.

(China Daily 07/18/2001)