China Has More Web Surfers Than U.S.

Posted on July 24, 2008

China now has more people surfing the Internet than the United States does. The country has a larger population than the U.S., so it was bound to eventually overtake us. ABC News reports that China has about 30 million more web surfers than the U.S. China has 253 million surfers (according to the China Internet Network Information Center) while the U.S. has about 223.1 million surfers (according to a Pew Internet and American Life Project study).

Chinese citizens may have more web surfers but these web surfers to not have unlimited access to the Internet. China is also well known for having strict filters that block citizens from viewing many of the world's websites. During the recent situation in Tibet, China reportedly even blocked news websites like CNN and the BBC. U.S. organizations doing business in China - including MSN, Yahoo and Google - have been blamed for complying with China's filters in order to do business in the country. You can read an article about how China filters the Internet here on Salon.