There are now 338 million Internet users in China – a figure which surpasses the total amount of web users in the US, which has fewer than 307 million online.

According to the China Internet Information Center, web use has grown 13.4 per cent in China since the end of 2008. However, this still means only 25.5 per cent of the Chinese population of more than 1.3 billion are online. Comparatively, 70 per cent of the 304 million US population is reportedly online.

Mobile Internet take-up in China is also taking off – usage has risen 32.1 per cent since the beginning of this year to 155 million.