From January to April, Internet companies completed business income of 344.6 billion yuan, up 4.9% year-on-year.

　　BEIJING, May 27 (Xinhua) According to the website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, from January to April 2020, the business income of Internet and related service enterprises above designated size in China (referred to as Internet enterprises) reached 344.6 billion yuan, up 4.9% year-on-year. The growth rate was 3.4 percentage points higher than that in January-April, but it was still 15.3 percentage points lower than that in the same period last year.

　　From January to April, 2020, the Internet and related service industries showed an overall upward trend, with business income, profits, R&D investment and other indicators rising month on month. Internet enterprises in different fields show obvious differentiation and development trend.

　　In terms of overall operation, the growth rate of Internet business revenue rebounded slightly. From January to April, the business income of Internet and related service enterprises above designated size in China (referred to as Internet enterprises) was 344.6 billion yuan, up 4.9% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 3.4 percentage points higher than that in January-April, but still lower than 15.3 percentage points in the same period last year.

　　Figure 1 Internet business revenue growth from January to April in 2019-2020

　　In addition, industry profits reversed the decline. From January to April, the whole industry achieved a total operating profit of 32.73 billion yuan, up 4.8% year-on-year, reversing the decline (-24.9%) in January and March, still lower than the same period last year by 29.1 percentage points.

　　Also, the growth rate of R&D investment has rebounded. From January to April, the R&D expenditure of the whole industry was 17.27 billion yuan, up 5.3% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 5.3 percentage points higher than that in January-March, still lower than 16.1 percentage points in the same period last year.

　　In terms of business and regional operation, information service revenue grew rapidly, and the rapid growth of audio and video services continued. From January to April, Internet companies completed information services (including online music and video, online games, news information, online reading, etc.) with a revenue of 215.2 billion yuan, up 12.8% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 1.7 percentage points higher than that in January-March, accounting for 62.4% of the Internet business revenue. Among them, online game enterprises gradually changed from high-speed growth at the beginning of the year to normal rapid growth, and enterprises mainly providing audio and video services maintained rapid growth.

　　The decline in service income of Internet platform narrowed, and the life service platform turned into positive growth. From January to April, Internet platform service enterprises (mainly providing production service platforms, life service platforms, scientific and technological innovation platforms, public service platforms, etc.) realized business income of 93.63 billion yuan, down 8.3% year-on-year, and the decline rate was 14.3 percentage points narrower than that in January-March, accounting for 27.2% of Internet business income. Among them, enterprises with online education services maintained rapid growth, life service platform enterprises reversed the continuous decline in the first three months, and the income growth rate of e-commerce enterprises increased month by month.

　　The growth rate of Internet access service revenue slowed down, and Internet data services grew rapidly. From January to April, the income of Internet enterprises from Internet access and related services was 14.93 billion yuan, up by 3.4% year-on-year, and the growth rate dropped by 8.8 percentage points compared with January-March. The revenue from completing Internet data services (including cloud services and big data services) was 4.91 billion yuan, up 12% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 3.1 percentage points higher than that from January to March.

　　Internet business revenue in the central region maintained rapid growth, while the northeast region continued to decline. From January to April, the income from Internet business in the central region was 12.2 billion yuan, up 23.3% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 18.4 percentage points higher than the national average. The income from Internet business in the eastern region was 287.8 billion yuan, up 5.7% year-on-year, accounting for 92.2% of the national (excluding cross-regional enterprises) Internet business income. The income from Internet business in the western region was 10.83 billion yuan, which was the same as that in the same period of last year, reversing the decline (-7.3%) from January to March. The revenue from Internet business in Northeast China was 1.2 billion yuan, down 11.9% year-on-year, and the decline was 1.3 percentage points higher than that in January-March.

　　The main provinces are developing in a differentiated way, and the growth of some provinces is more prominent. From January to April, Guangdong (up by 8%), Beijing (up by 18.3%), Shanghai (down by 17.9%), Zhejiang (up by 30.9%) and Fujian (up by 2.4%), the top five Internet businesses, achieved a total revenue of 277.15 billion yuan, accounting for 88.8% of the national total (excluding cross-regional enterprises). There are 19 provinces that have achieved positive growth in Internet business revenue growth, an increase of 2 provinces compared with January-March. Among them, Ningxia, Tianjin, Anhui, Chongqing and Hebei provinces have increased by more than 50%, while Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Heilongjiang, Liaoning and other provinces still have large declines.

　　In terms of the growth of the number of mobile applications (APPs) in China, the number of mobile applications (APPs) rebounded slightly. By the end of April, the number of apps monitored in China’s domestic market was 3.59 million, a net increase of 80,000 over March and a 2.2% increase from the previous month. Among them, there are 2.12 million APPs in local third-party app stores and 1.47 million apps in Apple Store (China). In April, there were 190,000 new apps on the shelves and 110,000 apps off the shelves.

　　The number of game applications remains ahead. By the end of April, among all kinds of apps, the top 4 apps accounted for 57.8%, and other 10 apps such as social communication and education accounted for 42.2%. Among them, the number of game apps continued to lead, reaching 884,000, an increase of 0.5 million over the end of March, accounting for 24.6% of all apps. The number of daily tools, e-commerce and life service apps reached 511,000, 370,000 and 311,000 respectively, ranking second, third and fourth, accounting for 14.2%, 10.3% and 8.7% of all apps respectively.

　　The total distribution of music and video applications ranked first. By the end of April, the total number of on-shelf applications distributed by third-party application stores in China reached 1,140.2 billion times. Among them, music and video downloads ranked first, reaching 154.9 billion times; Game downloads ranked second, reaching 139.6 billion times, up 5.9% from the previous month, with the most prominent growth; Daily tools, social communication, system tools and life services ranked third, fourth, fifth and sixth with 131.7 billion times, 130.3 billion times, 112 billion times and 105 billion times respectively. Among other applications, news reading (95 billion times), e-commerce (72.9 billion times) and finance (67.2 billion times) have been downloaded more than 50 billion times.