China’s digital economy reached 22.58 trillion yuan in 2016, ranking second globally and accounting for 30.3 percent of the national GDP, according to latest reports.

The China Internet Development Report 2017 and World Internet Development Report 2017 were released during a news conference at the 4th World Internet Conference (WIC) on Dec 4. The reports were compiled by Chinese ministries, government departments, academic institutions, and research institutes.

The two reports are meant to complement each other and cover a wide range of fields, including domestic and global information infrastructure, information technology, cybersecurity, digital economy, e-government, online media, and global cyberspace governance.

As of June 2017, the number of internet users around the world hit 3.89 billion, of which 751 million were in China — the most of any country worldwide. The development of the digital economy has become a common way for major countries and regions to reshape global competitiveness. At present, 22 percent of global GDP is closely related to the digital economy and China’s digital economy accounts for 30 percent of its GDP.

In addition, the China Internet Development Report 2017 analyzes and evaluates the effectiveness of internet development in all Chinese provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in terms of infrastructure construction, innovation capacity, digital economy development, internet application, network security, and network management. Among them, the top 10 are Guangdong, Beijing, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Fujian, Sichuan, Shandong, Tianjin, and Hubei.