China's Internet consumption hit 398.8 billion yuan (US$53.89 billion) last year and is expected to reach 581.5 billion yuan in 2008, up 45.8 percent, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

The "Netguide 2008" survey, which provides a wrap-up of China's 2007 cyber world, polled more than 300 websites and about 200 enterprises, with 50,786 interviewees around the country.

The Internet consumption includes all web-related expenses such as broadband installment expenses, payment for online game and shopping, and payment for IP phone services. According to Fu Zhihua, director of the Data Center of the China Internet (DCCI) research department that conducted the survey.

The DCCI survey also reports that Sina Corp., Netease.com Inc., Tencent and Sohu.com Inc., China's four largest Internet portals, have gained most from the robust Internet industry, accounting for about 76 percent of total web portal revenue in China.

The market scale of financial websites, fueled by bullish trends in China's stock market, reached 920 million yuan, and online search engines saw 82.8 percent growth to 2.87 billion yuan in 2007, said the survey.

The Netguide 2008 shows that among Internet users, browsing daily news takes up 38.8 percent of their time, followed by dealing with e-mail, 11 percent, and writing and reading blogs, 9.2 percent.

(CRIENGLISH.com January 10, 2008)