BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- China had 731 million users of online news services by March, up 55.98 million from the end of 2018, according to a report on China's Internet development.

The users of online news services account for 80.9 percent of the country's netizen population, which had reached 904 million, said the report issued by the China Internet Network Information Center.

The number of netizens accessing online news through mobile phones had increased 73.56 million from the end of 2018 to 726 million by March 2020, accounting for 81 percent of the total mobile phone netizens, it said.

The report pointed out that more and more traditional media outlets are cooperating with news aggregators and online entertainment platforms to diversify their news dissemination channels.

New technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence had also fueled the integration of traditional media and Internet-based new media, the report added.  ■