Growing concern about compulsive Web use by millions of people may lead China to become the first country to classify Internet addiction as a clinical condition. A new manual on Internet addiction may be adopted next year by the health ministry. The manual, created by Chinese psychologists, recognizes Internet addiction as similar to alcohol addiction or compulsive gambling.

With 253 million people using the Internet, China has the world's largest online population. In August, a Chinese...

Although there is no doubt that China's Internet-based economy has been affected by the global financial woes in the third quarter of this year, it is faced with more opportunities than challenges upon the massive netizen population, according to market consulting firm iResearch.

The Internet-based economy market size was 14.63 billion yuan ($2.15 billion) between July and September, a growth of 52.2 percent on the same period of last year, or 9.8 percent on the second quarter of...