China - World largest Internet Population by end of 2008

China is expected to overtake the United States to have the world's largest Internet population within two years, a quasi-government organization reported recently. The CNNIC report found that Internet access in China is going increasingly broadband and mobile. The country had 90.7 million broadband users by 2006, up 41.1 percent year-on-year. And about 17 million mobile phones users are now using their handsets to access the Web regularly and this number is increasing exponentially. CNNIC, said an increasingly mobile lifestyle in China could help spark an even bigger Internet boom. The growth of China's Internet population could get a boost after the country rolls out 3G (third generation) mobile telephony, which promises faster Internet access and downloads of data-heavy services such as videos. China had 461 million mobile phone users by the end of 2006, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Information Industry.