BEIJING, May 2 -- China's internet sector saw steady growth in business revenue in the first quarter of this year, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed.

In the first three months, China's major internet companies and related services companies generated 384 billion yuan (about 54 billion U.S. dollars) in business revenue, an increase of 8.4 percent year on year. This growth rate was 0.8 percentage points higher than that registered in the first two months.

Companies offering personal services, such as tourism and car-hailing, saw their business revenues increase 13.3 percent from a year earlier, while companies providing information services registered a revenue increase of 5.9 percent in the first quarter.

The data revealed that spending on research and development in major internet and related service companies stood at 19.86 billion yuan from January to March, edging down 0.6 percent year on year.

Major internet companies and related services companies refer to those which have annual business revenues of at least 20 million yuan.