China's Internet adoption sags to levels not seen since in 8 years

China’s rush to the Internet is slowing, with the country adding only 14.4 million new Internet users in the first half of 2014, the lowest half-year growth in eight years.

There were 632 million Internet users in China in June, according to the government-linked China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). Although China has long reigned as the country with the world’s largest Internet population, the services are still struggling to take off in the rural areas, where about 450 million people never go online, said the CNNIC in its bi-annual report. Total Internet penetration in China is at 46.9 percent. This is far lower than the US, which has a penetration rate of 87 percent, according to Internet World Stats.