Chinanews, Beijing, Nov. 29 ¨C China has 162 million netizens. Of them, 44.3 million surf on the Internet through their mobile phones, accounting for 27.3% of the total number of Internet users. Nowadays, more and more people prefer to browse websites with their mobile phones, said Xi Guohua, deputy director of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), on Tuesday.

He made the statement while attending an international forum on mobile Internet held in Beijing.

In China, mobile digital services now contribute to nearly 30% of all revenues made in telecommunication services. There are about 10,000 companies in China that provide mobile value-added services, Xi said.

Wireless search service has developed very quickly in China. Taking the WAP users as an example, by March 2007 China had 39 million people defined as active WAP users, which was approximately the total number of traditional Internet users five years ago, Xi noted.

MII predicts that the total revenue generated by telecommunication services might reach 780 billion yuan this year.