THE user base of mobile Internet has surpassed that of personal computer users for the first time in China, the world's No. 1 dot-com market by Internet population, a national-level Internet research organization said yesterday.

By the end of June, the number of China's netizens is said to have reached 538 million with a penetration rate of 39.3 percent, 1.6 percentage points more compared to the level at the end of last year, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

Mobile users like surfing online for features, including video and social blogging services like Weibo, a twitter-like service. "Increasing smartphone capabilities, combined with declining cellphone prices, are making the Internet increasingly available, even catering to less tech-savvy users," CNNIC said in a statement.

Around 388 million of the netizens are mobile phone users, exceeding the number of desktop computer users.

By the end of June, the number of users watching videos online will have increased by around 25 million and the number of microbloggers will have risen by 5.3 percent, the fastest rate of increase of any mobile phone application.

Internet protocol version six (iPv6), the newest revision of the dominant communications protocol for most Internet traffic, has seen a significant growth in China, ranking the country in the top 3, CNNIC reported.

The IPv6 represents the next generation development of Internet, which will improve network speed and increase Internet protocol address resources, analysts said.