China's fast-expanding internet population will drive a 32 percent surge in online spending this year, according to a survey released by the Beijing-based Data Center of China Internet (DCCI) on Monday.

Total online spending by Chinese internet users is expected to reach 364 billion yuan (US$47 billion) in 2007, up from last year's 276 billion yuan.

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Netizens spent a monthly average of 186 yuan online in the first half of the year, including on shopping, gaming and other online services. The figure is likely to reach 196 yuan for the whole of 2007, up 15.4 percent from the previous year.

China currently has 144 million internet users, second to the United States, said Fu Zhihua, director of the research department of DCCI, adding that with the number of internet users growing by 20 million annually, online spending will continue to increase.

The survey also showed online advertising revenues reached 3.3 billion yuan in the first half, as much as for the whole of 2005, and will hit 7.6 billion yuan for the whole year.

China's search engine sector, led by Baidu, Google and Yahoo!, recorded revenues of 1.15 billion yuan in the first six months, with the figure for the whole year likely to reach 2.7 billion yuan.

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