Jan. 25, 2007 (China Knowledge) – The number of Internet users in China rose by 23.4% last year and accounted for 10.5% of the country's total population, making the Asian nation very likely to overtake the U.S. as the country with the most Internet users within two years.

According to statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) the nation's online population had increased to 137 million people in the last 12 months. China is currently ranked second behind the U.S., which has an estimated 210 million Internet users out of its population of nearly 300,000.

One of the main factors in driving the growth of the Internet in China is improvements in broadband infrastructure in recent years, which have helped drive the costs of connections down. According to CNNIC, the average connection fee dropped by almost 20% to RMB 83.5 per month at the end of 2006. Also, more seamless content delivery has played a crucial role in the rise of users.

According to CNNIC, more than 70% of China's Internet users are under 30 years old, and 58.3% of the overall users are men, with 41.7% women. The two largest age groups for users are 18 to 24, with 35.2%, and 25 to 30, with 19.7%.