450 million use the Web

BEIJING - The number of Internet users in China reached 450 million by the end of November, up 20.3 percent year-on-year, a senior official said on Thursday.

Around 33.9 percent of the population are online, a ratio above the world average of 30 percent, Wang Chen, minister of the State Council Information Office, told a news conference in Beijing.

China has seen a rapid expansion of Internet popularity since 1994 when it was connected to the Internet and has the biggest online population, he said.