Internet-based economy boosts China's GDP, creates jobs

Internet-enabled digital economy accounted for 30.6 percent of China's GDP in 2016, according to the China Internet Plus and Digital Economy Index published in April.

The segment has created 2.8 million new jobs in China last year, or more than one-fifth of all newly-added positions, said the report compiled by gaming-to-messaging giant Tencent Holdings Ltd.

Healthcare, transportation and logistics, and education sectors have benefited the most so far from the digital wave. Meanwhile, manufacturing is set to adopt cloud computing and artificial intelligence, after the services sector reaped early gains from the internet economy.