BEIJING, May 14 -- China's digital industry generated a revenue of 9.5 trillion yuan (about 1.39 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter, up 12.9 percent from the same period last year.

The growth rate is 3.5 percentage points higher than the same period last year, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed Thursday.

In the period, the digital industry achieved a total profit of 737.8 billion yuan, up 23.6 percent year on year, with the growth rate accelerating by 16.6 percentage points.

The number of 5G base stations in China topped 4.9 million by the end of March, per the data.

In the first three months of the year, the value-added industrial output of major companies in the electronic information manufacturing sector expanded 13.6 percent year on year, while the revenue of the software sector increased by 11.7 percent year on year.