Number of Chinese netizens exceeds 1 billion

China has seen a rapid growth of netizens over the past decade, along with a higher internet popularity rate, Niu Yibing, spokesman of the country's top cyberspace regulator, told a news conference on Friday.

The number of internet users rose to 1.03 billion last year from 564 million in 2012, while the internet popularity rate increased to 73 percent from 42.1 percent during that period, Niu said.

The urban-rural gap in the internet popularity rate was reduced by 12.6 percentage points, he said.

China now boasts the world's largest and most advanced optical fiber broadband and mobile communications network, with 1.85 million 5G base stations and 455 million 5G mobile phone users, Niu explained.

"It can be said that our construction of internet infrastructure has been accelerated," he added.