Telecommunications in China pie charts). China's number of Internet users or netizens topped 137 million by the end of 2006, an increase of 23.4% from a year before and 162 million by June 2007, making China the second largest Internet user after the United States. The latest figure (December 2011) have China's internet users exceeding 513 million making it the largest internet user in the world. As of 2004, the largest concentration of Internet users were from Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Shandong and Hubei provinces. Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin also had a high concentration of Internet users, with 28% of Beijing's population
Science and technology in China had been growing by an average 36% each year during the previous decade. Chinese IT companies have been moving away from narrow downstream services and products to having a full range. China, with the active support of the Chinese government, is a leading pioneer in Internet of Things technology. According to the China Internet Network Information Center there were 751 million internet users as of 2017, with 53.2% of the population being internet users. The number of mobile internet users reached 724 million, with high penetration rates for mobile phones and broadband internet. By 2017, China has the largest e-commerce