China's Internet use has been increasing over the years but that growth might now be slowing, analysts say, though there are now 632 million China residents online.
While the current figure of new users reflects an eight-year low, it illustrates a trend even more surprising: most of China's users are accessing the Internet via a mobile device.
According to reports, there were only 14.4 million new Chinese Internet users coming online in the first half of 2014. The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) describe it as the slowest period of growth in eight years.
But there remains a huge untapped population of 450 million people who live in rural areas without service.
The Internet penetrates about 47 percent of China, and that pales in comparison with the United States, where the Internet penetration rate is about 87 percent.
The CNNIC said most of the rural users in China have little education and little need to go online. They recommended that the government focus on education and Internet learning in rural schools, reports state. Rural use comprises about 178 million Chinese Internet users.
China is also the world's second-largest economy. According to at least one report, there were more than 53 million Internet users added to China's total just last year. An official Chinese news agency reportedly cited the CNNIC deputy director, Liu Bing, regarding the sagging Internet growth, stating that smartphone sales have declined. Bing said this was a factor in slow growth. In the first quarter, Chinese smartphone sales dropped nearly 25 percent, totaling around 100 million units.
Social media use is also down. At least one report alludes to a link in the drop to government crackdowns on social media sites. Citizens in China have clashed with the Communist Party in recent times by being active and vocal online, a sentiment the government has worked to censor over the years. Services the government has censored include Weibo and Tencent's WeChat.
