China has 731 million Internet users as of December 2016, roughly the size of Europe's population, according to a report released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

据中国互联网络信息中心发布的一份报告显示，截止2016年12月，中国网民数量已经达到了7.31亿人，这一数字差不多相当于整个欧洲的全部人口。

The number of Web users grew by 42.99 million in 2016, or 6.2 percent from the previous year, accounting¹ for 53.2 percent of China's total population, the report said.

报告指出，2016年中国网民数量增加了4299万人，同比去年增长6.2个百分点，而网民总人数占到了中国总人口的53.2%。

Li Yi, a Shanghai-based independent IT expert, told the Global Times the surge in the number of smartphones was the primary reason for the growth in Net users.

上海独立IT专家李亦在接受《环球时报》采访时表示，智能手机数量激增是网民数量增长的主要原因。

Some 695 million netizens used mobile phones to access the Internet in 2016, with a growth rate exceeding 10 percent for the third straight year, the report said. Smartphone-based Internet use accounted for 95.1 percent of all Internet users, up from 90.1 percent in 2015.

报告称，2016年共有6.95亿网民使用手机上网，增长率已经连续第三年超过10%。在所有网民中，用智能手机上网的人占比达到了95.1%，而2015年时这一比例还只有90.1%。

The report noted² that 201 million people or 27 percent of Internet users were from rural areas, or a gap of 45.2 percent in the Internet penetration³ rate between urban and rural areas.

报告还指出，其中2.01亿（27%）网民来自农村地区，城市和农村地区互联网普及率差距为45.2%。

"Poverty has stunted⁴ further growth in Internet users, which has kept the Net user population to around 50 percent," Li said.

李亦表示：“贫困阻碍了网民数量的进一步增加，使得网民数量占全部人口的比例只在50%左右。”

Meanwhile, domestic Internet users have formed a mobile payment habit, with the number of users making payments through smartphones skyrocketing to 469 million last year, up by 31.2 percent from the previous year.

与此同时，国内互联网用户已经养成了手机支付的习惯，去年用手机支付的用户数量飙升到了4.69亿，同比前一年增长了31.2%。