485 million Internet users in China

Want to know why so many American companies are willing to go to great lengths to play nice with the Chinese government? That headline is your answer. That 485 million number. Here’s another number for you: 15.5. That’s the percentage increase in Chinese Internet users over a year ago. Massive jump. Big caveat: this is all information from the Chinese government by way of the state-sanctioned China Internet Network Information Center. That body also reports that 318 million people in China are accessing the web on mobile devices. The 15.5 percent increase is actually down slightly from a year ago when the number of internet users reportedly rose 19 percent.