The meteoric growth of China's Internet has great potential for development and will promote a freer flow of information, major website executives and experts attending a seminar at Sanya, a city in south China's Hainan Province.

China, the world's second largest Internet market after the United States, has 111 million Internet users. The number of netizens is expected to jump by at least 15 percent annually before 2010.

"This means big business and enormous opportunities," Wang Yan, chief executive officer of sina.com, a top Chinese portal listed on the New York Nasdaq stock exchange, was quoted by Wednesday's China Daily as saying.

People hooked to the Internet now account for a mere 8.4 percent of China's total population. Web-based business is still on the rise, according to the more than 70 executives and Internet researchers who attended the annual meeting of the Internet Information Service Commission of the Internet Society of China.

"Among the countries whose per-capita yearly GDP is less than 2,000 U.S. dollars, China has witnessed the fastest growth of Internet sector, and the boom reflects China's effective yet market-friendly regulation," Wang said. Up to 20 Chinese firms have been listed abroad, mainly in the United States, with a gross market value exceeding 10 billion U.S. dollars.