If there is any wonder about why companies like Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) want more access to China’s Internet population, look no further than new statistics from China Internet Network Information Center. Over 649 million people are online in the People’s Republic of China. But will China allow businesses based outside its borders to profit from the market these users represent?

The agency’s researchers reported:

On February 3, 2015, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) released the 35th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China in Beijing. The Report shows that as of December 2014, China had an Internet user base of 649 million and an Internet penetration rate of 47.9%. Specifically, mobile apps for travel reservation beat other mobile apps with the annual user growth rate of 194.6%; the O2O (Online to Offline) market had grown rapidly and O2O had become a pace-setting business mode in the industry; China’s Internet business sector had made considerable progress in the overall environment, Internet app popularization and the development of hot industries.

The news about the mobile Internet shows why Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) says China is critical to its growth:

As of December 2014, China had 557 million mobile Internet users, an increase of 56.72 million over the end of 2013, and the percentage of those using mobile phones to go online jumped from 81.0% in 2013 to 85.8%. The use of mobile instant message apps had grown steadily, attracting 91.2% of the mobile Internet users. The explosion of mobile online games had slowed down and stabilized and their market share is expected to further increase in 2015. Users of mobile travel reservation apps had increased by 194.6%, making them the fastest-growing category of mobile business apps. Other mobile business apps including mobile e-shopping, mobile payment and mobile banking had grown by 63.5%, 73.2% and 69.2%, respectively, an annual growth higher than that of other mobile apps.

Google has learned the difficult lesson that China is willing to block Gmail and some searches. And Twitter has faced bans. Yet, the market is so huge that the risks of persisting are worth it.

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