6G research and development is accelerating. Photo: TUCHONG

“In the past, we talked about ‘surfing the internet.’ Today, it’s about ‘using the internet.’ Tomorrow, it will be about the ‘intelligent internet.’” The 56th Statistical Report on China’s Internet Development (hereinafter the Report), recently released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), traces this progression with a string of figures: As of June 2025, China’s internet user base reached 1.123 billion, with an internet penetration rate of 79.7%. The country has built 4.55 million 5G base stations, ensuring gigabit optical fiber access in every county, 5G coverage in every township, and broadband connectivity in every village. China’s total computing power now ranks among the global top tier.

Establishing the world’s largest ‘digital base’

The Report shows that China has built the world’s largest 5G network, with 5G RedCap (Reduced Capability) achieving continuous coverage across all county-level regions and above. In computing power, China ranks among the global leaders, with 20.85 million “.CN” domain names—the highest worldwide for 11 consecutive years. In terms of universal access, rural internet penetration has risen from 55.9% at the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–25) to 69.2%. There were 161 million internet users aged 60 and above, representing a 52% usage rate. Users of online government services, healthcare, and education now numbered 1.004 billion, 393 million, and 293 million, respectively, making digital public services accessible to all.

Lyu Peng, a research fellow from the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that these achievements have played a critical role in driving internet adoption and the growth of the digital economy. “Robust network infrastructure and abundant internet resources have provided a solid foundation for widespread internet use, accelerating its spread and narrowing the digital divide between urban and rural areas and across regions. At the same time, they have provided strong technological and resource support for the digital economy, fostering deep integration between digital technology and the real economy, giving rise to new industries and models, and driving industrial upgrading and economic restructuring.”

AI agents reshape internet strategies

According to the Report, China currently has 346 registered generative AI products, with leading applications such as DeepSeek active on a global scale. Generative AI has matured into a complete industrial and application system, primarily deployed in intelligent search, content creation, office assistance, smart hardware, and scientific research.

With the rapid advancement of AI technology, AI agents are becoming a defining feature of internet evolution, upgrading it from “information connectivity” to “intelligent connectivity” and profoundly reshaping the internet’s technical architecture and application ecosystem. This transformation has not only brought breakthroughs in service models, platform functions, and industry boundaries, but also redefined the core competitiveness and development logic of the entire internet sector.

According to Wu Hequan, former chairman of the Internet Society of China, this marks a paradigm shift from “users as operators” to “AI agent autonomous execution + human supervision and decision-making,” with humans assuming the role of “final decision-makers.”

Zhang Xiao, a professor at the Nanjing University Business School, describes “intelligent connectivity” as the “second half” of internet development: “If the ‘information connectivity’ era, characterized by information retrieval and social networking, represents the first half, then the ‘intelligent connectivity’ stage, driven by AI agents, marks the second half.” He noted that AI agents, by dint of multimodal interaction and dynamic learning capabilities, are upgrading services from “responsive” to “proactive”—capable of deeply understanding user intentions and proactively orchestrating services to meet one-stop needs—elevating the personalization and service depth to new heights. AI agents also speed up the integration of the internet with traditional industries, enhancing operational efficiency and spawning new “AI+” business models, injecting new momentum into industrial intelligence.

This technological restructuring is also changing the focus of business competition—from acquiring users to maximizing scenario depth. Zhang explained: “Competition is moving from horizontal battles over user scale to vertical exploration of scenario depth, from seizing network flow entry points to building dominance over AI agent ecosystems in vertical scenarios. Therefore, the ability to accurately predict user intentions, ensure data security and privacy, and reliably fulfill delegated tasks will form the core competitiveness of future AI agents.”

From a global perspective, Lyu believes the integration of AI technology and internet applications is still underway. Based on current implementation, China already ranks in the global first tier, leading in fields such as intelligent security, network regulation, and fintech. Nevertheless, bottlenecks persist, including the need to improve the compatibility of AI algorithms with internet infrastructure, balance data security with intelligent decision-making, and strengthen self-reliance in core technologies.

Rising security concerns amid application boom

Technological advancements have triggered explosive growth in vertical sectors. On the consumer side, as of June 2025, China’s short video platform users reached 1.068 billion (95.1% penetration), micro-drama viewers hit 626 million, and 976 million users made purchases online. From January to May 2025, online retail sales reached about 6.04 trillion yuan, maintaining a 13-year global lead. In instant retail and online tourism, 388 million retail users overlapped across Taobao, JD.com, and Meituan, while 65.21 million tourist users overlapped across Ctrip, Meituan, and JD.com, reflecting increasingly fierce competition.

High growth also brings high risks. Wang Le, a professor from the Cyberspace Institute of Advanced Technology at Guangzhou University, noted that both “malicious use of technology” and “digitally marginalized groups” coexist in this process, with risks of technology misuse growing alongside scale. By the first half of 2025, 54.5% of internet users had mastered at least one digital skill, but cybersecurity awareness education remains insufficient. Non-internet users numbered 286 million, with those aged 60 and above accounting for 52.1%, highlighting the need for elderly-friendly adaptations and robust anti-fraud measures.

Wang further emphasized that current societal attention often focuses on the application level, while somewhat neglecting the foundational value of infrastructure and platforms. Ensuring that network infrastructure continues to lead in terms of core technologies and management is crucial for the sustained, stable, and healthy development of the internet and related industries. Only by comprehensively fortifying multi-layered security defenses can we ensure stability and reduce fluctuations during development cycles.

Advancing synergy of technology, talent, and systems

China’s decades-long internet development reflects repeated breakthroughs and responses to evolving needs, moving the country from following to competing alongside, and in some areas, leading. Looking ahead, progress depends on the coordination of technology, talent, and institutional systems. Regarding network technology, China holds 42% of global 5G standard essential patents and is accelerating 6G research, but independent control over key elements, such as AI chips and algorithm frameworks, requires further breakthroughs. For network talent, building a robust digital talent pipeline remains critical.

On internet governance, Huang He, a professor from the School of Journalism and Communication at Renmin University of China, noted that one major impact of internet development is the growing public awareness of participation, oversight, responsibility, and legality. This change directly requires governance bodies to firmly uphold a people-centered approach, genuinely addressing public concerns, needs, and expectations.

Huang also identifies the key factors driving the industry from inception to leadership: a people-centered development philosophy to guide the direction, infrastructure construction to solidify the foundation, a clear goal to boost China’s strength in cyberspace, and an optimized governance system to provide safeguards. In terms of foundational infrastructure, from the “Three Gold Projects” [the Golden Bridge Project, the Golden Pass Project, and the Golden Card Project, initiated in 1993 to build China’s information superhighway] to the “Broadband China” strategy to new information infrastructure construction, China’s commitment to internet infrastructure has remained unchanged, continually updating and expanding its goals to align with domestic and international socioeconomic development, thus laying a solid foundation for internet industry growth.

Over the next 5–10 years, internet applications will grow increasingly diverse, penetrating industries in deeper and more segmented ways. Yet the dual nature of technology demands constant vigilance.

Wang called for targeted efforts to address “technology misuse and abuse” in an era where internet infrastructure is widely deployed and user bases are massive, ensuring sustained innovation and high-quality development. Specifically, cybersecurity and online public opinion safety education should be strengthened among the general public, starting with primary, secondary, and university students—the “core residents” of the future internet. Additionally, it is essential to build a strong cybersecurity talent pool and support the development of the cybersecurity industry itself. This necessitates enhancing faculty for cybersecurity majors in universities and vocational schools, expanding enrollment and training, building teaching resource platforms, as well as fostering industry-academia collaboration and technology transfer in cybersecurity through policy support.

From “the world’s largest internet user base” to “an AI-driven paradigm shift,” China’s internet is undergoing a critical leap from quantitative to qualitative transformation. On the matter of the internet’s evolving nature, the aforementioned scholars concur—the first half was defined by connectivity, while the second half will be shaped by intelligence and trust. Only by simultaneously spinning the flywheels of technology, talent, and systems can the dividends of digitization truly bridge the urban-rural gap, transcend age boundaries, and integrate across scenarios to serve as a core engine for Chinese modernization.