Briefing: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology releases latest internet business data

工信部：1-7月互联网企业业务收入4965亿元，同比增25.9% – Yicai

What happened: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported earlier this morning that China’s internet related businesses’ revenues for January – July 2018 hit RMB 496.5 billion ($72.4 billion), up 25.9% compared to the same period last year. Information services, whose revenue made up 90.8% of the total industry revenues monitored, grabbed RMB 451.0 billion from the market, up 26.4 compared to the same period last year. E-commerce and games (including PC games, mobile games, and web games) reported revenues of RMB 177.6 billion (37.8% increase over the same period last year) and RMB 111.3 billion (27.5% increase over the same period last year) respectively.

Why it’s important: The latest data report has demonstrated steady growth of China’s internet businesses. With information services’ 90.8% revenue contribution to the whole industry revenues monitored, the sector will see stable increase of its weight in the industry, as businesses raise infrastructure demands and the country continuously highlights information technology as a strategic sector.