China’s Internet service sectors’ revenue up 20.3% in 2018

China’s Internet service and related sectors saw fast revenue growth in 2018, with e-commerce and online gaming continuing steady expansion.

The sectors’ total revenue amounted to 956.2 billion yuan (about 142 billion U.S. dollars), up 20.3 percent from 2017, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Guangdong, Shanghai and Beijing, the top three cities in Internet service revenue, recorded a growth of 26.5 percent, 20 percent and 25.2 percent, respectively.

The sectors’ spending on research and development reached 49 billion yuan, up 19 percent from 2017.

Information services were the largest revenue contributor for the sectors, garnering an income of 859.4 billion yuan, up 20.7 percent year-on-year, and accounting for 89.4 percent of the total revenue.

E-commerce platforms obtained 366.7 billion yuan of revenue, up 13.1 percent, while online gaming earned 194.8 billion yuan, up 17.8 percent.

The Internet sector has become a key part of China’s “new economy” as the country undergoes a shift to growth driven more by technology and consumption.

The MIIT statistics cover enterprises with annual revenue from Internet services of above three million yuan in the previous year.