Society
China's IP addresses under strain with 404m users
By Zhang Jiawei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-04-23 14:57
 |
Large Medium Small |
China's Internet users increased 20 million in the first quarter of this year, hitting the 404 million mark, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Thursday, the Shanghai Securities News reported.
With the fast increase of Internet users, China's current Internet protocol (IP) addresses will run out in the next 2 to 3 years, and the country has to speed up the deployment of the new generation IP addresses - IPv6, said Zhu Jun, deputy director of the ministry's telecom development department.
But until now, the country still does not have a clear plan for the development of IPv6, neither does it clear on how to handle the relationship between IPv6 and the current IPv4 in the future, Zhu said.
China has 191 million users of social-networking sites by the end of March. And according to a report Friday by Chinanews, the most frequently visited social-networking sites are QQ zone, Renren, Kaixin001, Kaixin.com and other global social-networking sites.
The Chinanews cited a survey done by Dynamic Logic under Millward Brown and said China's netizens spend on average 22.2 hours a week on the Internet, mainly for entertainment and communicating with friends.
