China's microbloggers near 200 million

Beijing, Aug 29 (ANI): The number of Chinese microbloggers has reportedly been increasing sharply of late, as popular social networks have attracted 40 percent of the country's Internet users.

Xinhua quoted Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology Liu Lihua as saying that microblogging played an important role in collecting public opinion.

Liu Lihua also said that microblogging is complementary to business development and traditional media.

The number of Chinese netizens have now reached 485 million, while the first half of this year saw a 200 percent jump in the amount of microbloggers from 60 million to 200 million. (ANI)