China's Internet population hits 513 million

BEIJING: The number of Internet users in China rose last year by nearly 56 million to more than half a billion, nearly half of whom used weibos, or microblogs, according to official figures released Monday.

China's online population - the world's largest - hit 513 million in 2011, a 12.2 percent increase on the previous year, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said in a statement.

Of these, 48.7 percent - or nearly 250 million people - now used weibos, compared to just 63.1 million at the end of 2010, posing a huge challenge to government attempts to control information in the country of 1.3 billion.

The weibos - hugely popular microblogging services similar to Twitter, which China bans - have become the most popular medium for web users to vent their anger over corruption, scandals and disasters, or alert others about protests or riots.

The number of people using more traditional communication tools such as emails, web forums or blogs was falling, the CNNIC said.