BEIJING — China's internet and related services sectors have maintained rapid expansion in the first 10 months, displaying enhanced profitability, official data showed.

The sectors' total revenue reached 990.2 billion yuan (about $140.6 billion) during the January-October period, up 21 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The growth rate was 3 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

Business profit came in at 85.6 billion yuan, increasing by 15.1 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the sectors' spending on research and development surged 23.6 percent from a year ago to around 40 billion yuan.

Information services were the largest revenue contributor for the sectors, garnering an income of 65.6 billion yuan and accounting for 66.3 percent of the total revenue.

In addition, revenue from data services jumped 17.9 percent to 9.6 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 5 million yuan in the previous year.