China may beat US in netizen population

BEIJING: The number of netizen in China soared to 23.4% in 2006 to touch 137 million and is expected to overtake the United States in internet population size within two years.

The number of internet users rose to 137 million last year, up 23.4% to comprise 10.5% of the country���s population of 1.3 billion, the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) said in a report.

���We believe it will take two years at most for China to overtake the US", an official with CNNIC was quoted as saying by China Daily. However, that could be a bullish prediction. The US now has about 210 million internet users, according to industry estimates.