97m Chinese hail taxi online in 2015

About 96.6 million Chinese people, or about one in every 14 Chinese, hailed a taxi via the Internet in 2015, with most of them using mobile phones to do so, a report showed.

Meanwhile 21.6 million people booked trips by private cars online, said the report released by the China Internet Network Information Center on Friday.

Universal access to the Internet has boosted public services and effectively improved people's living standards and social harmony, the report said.

Ride-hailing services are booming due to the Internet's rapid development. Private car services from Didi, a leading Chinese ride-hailing app, is available in 199 cities. The U.S. counterpart Uber said in November that China is about to become its largest market.

The report also said China's total Internet users have reached 688 million by the end of 2015, accounting for 50.3 percent of the country's total population.