(ATF) Income from information technology services grew rapidly in the first quarter as the coronavirus lockdown forced people to find entertainment online.
Movie, music, gaming and other streaming services climbed 16.7%, according to data released by official website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Wednesday.
Within the industry, internet and related service enterprises earned 215.3 billion yuan ($30.58bn) in the three months to the end of March, up 1.5% year-on-year, and the growth rate dropped 15.8% year-on-year. Operating profit, however, reached 18.44bn yuan, down 24.9%. Investment in research and development was flat, the data showed.
Internet enterprises pulled in 146.6bn yuan in revenue from streaming services, an increase of 11.1%, accounting for 68.1% of Internet business revenue.
Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian topped the list of regions claiming the biggest share of accumulated income in the sector. They drew in a combined 166.1bn yuan, accounting for 86.6% of the country’s total.
