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The growth of China’s digital sector accelerated in the first quarter of this year, fueled by robust profits within the electronics and information manufacturing industries.
Industry revenue expanded by 13% to approximately 9.5 trillion RMB (around 1.4 trillion USD) for the three months ending March 31, compared to a 9.4% increase during the same period last year, according to recent data. Leading provincial regions—such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing, Shanghai, and Zhejiang—collectively generated about 7.9 trillion RMB in the first quarter, representing a 14% rise year-over-year. These areas accounted for 83% of total industry revenue and contributed 89% to overall growth.
Total profits in the sector jumped 23.6% to roughly 738 billion RMB (about 108.5 billion USD), a notable increase from the 7% rise recorded previously. Profit margins improved from 6.8% to 7.8%.
This sector forms the backbone of the digital economy, encompassing telecoms, electronics and information manufacturing, software and IT services, along with internet-related industries.
As of March 31, China operated 4.96 million 5G base stations and 32 million 10-gigabit passive optical network ports capable of high-speed gigabit services, with 5G-A coverage extending across 330 cities.
In terms of computing infrastructure, the nation had 14.45 million active standard server racks in data centers, with an intelligent computing capacity reaching 1,882 exa-FLOPS. This ecosystem is supported by over 70 high-capacity computing corridors centered around major hubs.
The added value of electronics and information manufacturing firms exceeding designated size grew nearly 14% in the first quarter compared to the previous year, surpassing overall industrial growth by 7.5 percentage points. Operating revenue for these companies increased by 15% to about 4.31 trillion RMB, while profits soared more than onefold to 217 billion RMB.
Most sub-sectors within electronics and information manufacturing experienced positive profit growth, particularly electronic component manufacturing, which showed the strongest performance.
Meanwhile, digital services remained steady. Telecom service volumes increased by 8.3% during the first three months compared to the prior year. Software revenue climbed 12% to around 3.5 trillion RMB. Additionally, internet and related service providers surpassing a certain size saw their revenues grow 11% to approximately 502.7 billion RMB, a significant jump from 1.2% growth in the previous year.
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