BEIJING, April 29 -- China's large internet companies and related services companies saw their profits expand robustly in the first quarter of the year, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) showed.

Profits of these companies surged 55.2 percent year on year to 28.28 billion yuan (about 4.08 billion U.S. dollars) during the period, MIIT data showed.

The combined business revenue of these companies stood at 302 billion yuan, up 1.6 percent year on year.

Large internet companies and related services companies are those with an annual business revenue of at least 20 million yuan.