Digital strides powering China's economic progress

The country's digital economy accounted for 32.28 percent of its gross domestic product in 2017 and remained an important pivot for the country's economic growth, a new report said on Thursday.

Released by Tencent Research Institute, the annual China Internet Plus Index shows that the internet-based digital economy amounted to 26.7 trillion yuan ($4.25 trillion) in 2017, up 17.24 percent year on year.

Driven by the coming-of-age mobile payment technologies, healthcare, education and entertainment sectors have benefited the most in 2017 from the booming digital wave. Meanwhile, business services and life services saw a period of sluggish growth due to their relatively high digital levels.