The number of blogs in China hit 34 million last August, 30 times more than there were just four years ago when the on-line writing phenomena began to sweep the country.

More than 17 million people in China consider themselves blog writers, offering personal insights and opinions on any topic they choose, according to a report on China's blog market, which says 75 million people regularly read blogs.

The report also points out that nearly 70 percent of the blogs, or about 23 million of them, are classified as dormant as they have remained unchanged for more than a month. "It (the dormancy) has caused great waste to blog space," the report said.

The rapid growth of blog sites in China also brought potential business opportunities to the advertising industry. Some blogs written by famous people attract millions of daily readers.

Nearly 40 percent of blog writers said they would accept advertisements on their blogs and over half of blog readers who were interviewed said they would continue to read blogs with advertisements, according to the report.

Market observers suggested experts conduct further surveys to probe the commercial value of blogs.

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