BEIJING — Firms in China's internet and other related service sectors reported strong revenue expansion in 2019 as new technologies and applications play increasingly bigger roles in reshaping the country's economy.

These firms, each with annual revenue over 5 million yuan (about $724,400) in 2018, raked in a total of about 1.21 trillion yuan last year, up 21.4 percent year-on-year, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) showed.

The industry's operating profits rose 16.9 percent year-on-year, 13.1 percentage points faster than 2018.

Spending on research and development outpaced that of revenue, rising 23.1 percent year-on-year, MIIT data showed.