The internet continues to grow in popularity in China, as the country's China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) reported Tuesday that the country had 649 million internet users by the end of 2014.
The non-profit organization said China's current internet population is 31 million higher than it was last year, and that 557 million (86 percent) of those users go online on mobile devices, according to Reuters. Mobile internet users also saw an increase by 57 million.
China is currently the world's biggest market for smartphones, providing success to a variety of tech giants like e-commerce companies Alibaba and JD.com, social networking and video game firm Tencent Holdings, search giant Baidu and smartphone maker Xiaomi.
China still has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to Internet use, since an Internet Society report from last year says the country had an internet penetration rate of 47.9 percent at the end of 2014 while more than 40 other countries have a penetration rate of at least 70 percent, CNET reported. The country's population of 1 billion people is also a sign of how much China has to do to increase internet use.
However, internet users in China continue to grow, with tens of millions of people joining the Web each year.
The CNNIC's report comes at a time when tech giants are trying to improve their relationships with China, with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg making trips to the country last year, CNET reported.
Goals for Zuckerberg in his trip included persuading markets to end their ban on Facebook and its photo-sharing service Instagram, as well as developing advertising partnerships with Tencent, Taobao and other big Chinese companies.
