BEIJING — China's internet and related services sectors have maintained rapid expansion in the first nine months, displaying enhanced profitability, official data showed.

The sectors' total revenue reached 860.4 billion yuan (about $122.26 billion) during the January-September period, up 19.7 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The growth rate was 0.3 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

Business profit came in at 73.1 billion yuan, surging 31.6 percent from the same period last year. The growth rate was 16.1 percentage points higher than the same period last year and 8.9 percentage points faster than the first half of the year.

Meanwhile, the sectors' spending on research and development reached 34.6 billion yuan, up 18.3 percent year-on-year.

Information services were the largest revenue contributor for the sectors, garnering an income of 566 billion yuan and accounting for 65.8 percent of the total revenue.

In addition, revenue from data services jumped 21 percent to 7.93 billion yuan.

The internet sector has become a key component of China's "new economy" as the country undergoes a shift to growth driven more by technology and consumption.

The MIIT statistics cover enterprises with annual revenue from internet services of above 3 million yuan in the previous year.